Dovahkiin Quest Redux
by Deviate's Fish
Summary: This is another RP log from my time in SB in the middle of 2012. It is where a very arrogant Dragonborn struts around Ferelden and has some fun here and there. Killed some 20,000 or so Darkspawn in the process too.


Dovahkiin Quest Redux

It was a deafening roar, one which shook you down to the bone. Your very soul shivered as bolts of fiery energy rained down from all sides, the physical manifestation of the rage of the being before you. You ducked and rolled, using every skill you have earned over the course of your life, knowing that what hung on the outcome of this battle was far greater than your life.

The fog cleared as a resonating shout of "LOK VAH KOOR" blasted away the fuzzy drowsiness from the corners of your vision. The smell of fire tickled your nostrils. Everything was ablaze, from the spiritual surroundings to the great whale-bone bridge; even the fires themselves seem to be alit with agony from even brighter flames eating away at them. Your attire was hot to your skin. You could feel the sweat flow all over your body, a discomfort you pushed away as far as you could. Droplets rolled down your brow, though you couldn't tell if they were sweat or tears. It hurt to keep your eyes open.

As you rolled forward, your armor sizzled against your skin. The mighty dragon before you took another breath at you, which you dodged by strafing to a side. Around you, the cries of the dead were like thousands of tiny prick at your ears. These noble warriors and heroes of your people were being devoured where they stood. Though only souls of the dead, they too were burning under the heated glaze of the World Eater.

You twirled your weapon in your hands, almost too afraid to go ahead and fight. Against such a powerful monstrosity, what is this little piece of metal, wood and leather going to do? You felt like an ant before a giant, so terribly insignificant.

The beast's jagged black scales gleamed in the fire light, even as hundreds of meteors rained down from all sides, created simply on his whim. Reality crackled and screamed as the first son of the dragon god tore and rend the spiritual realm asunder. For all who were present, who were still alive and hanging by a thread, it was as if the end was nigh. From here, the World Eater will devour and conquer, as is his right as the first born. It was in his very soul, the very being of his is created to conquer.

Yet amidst all of this terrible destruction, you saw the dragon's arrogance. He believed that he had already won. He was no longer weaving in and out of the fog, calling it like a blanket of safety to wrap around him. He was not diverting his attention away from you and your allies to snatch up wandering spirits to keep him going. He thought he had won. Under your worn, battered helm, you allowed yourself a vicious grin.

With the last ounces of your strength, you leapt forward, allowing the dragon soul within you to take hold and guide your movements. You were prophesied for this. A thousand years of planning cumulating to this moment, as the world stood still, as if only you and the beast existed. All else paused to watch, as in the last few seconds, you plunged your bare fists into the beast's eyes and roared in defiance. The world shook, and everything that had come to a halt immediately resumed with a redoubled effort.

You expected it to come, the moment you tore into the beast's head, crushed its skull and splattered its brains all across the field. It was the moment that the physical manifestation of this beast had come to an end. But it was not the end of the fight.

Before he expired, the beast cursed you between his coughs of horrid laughter that shook even the very air you breathed; and he shattered the planes around you. Even as you drank in his soul, taking in power of the Thu'um that sung greater than any other, Alduin's power hurled you across the spiritual realms…

…and then, blackness.

_Drip, drop._

Ah, there's the imaginary water dripping at the back of your mind. Pay no attention to it; it's obviously just a prop to show how sane you are. And you certainly aren't talking to yourself right now—you're actually just conversing with the voices in your head, which is perfectly normal for a Dragonborn, from all the Dragonborn that you have met.

_Drip, drop._

Oh, sure, mention that you are the only Dragonborn you've met! Arguing with yourself is perfectly normal too!

_Drip, drop._

So ever since you could remember, you've had these voices in your head. You were smart enough, even as a child, to know not to tell anyone about them. They came up with the most ingenious—albeit crazy—ideas, and you didn't really want someone to come take them away. They were your imaginary friends, after all.

Sure things didn't go well sometimes, when you listened to these voices, like that one time the voices in your head told you that you should take a trip. You woke up after being knocked out for half a day, on a prison wagon with Ulfric Stormcloak. How about the other time you listened to the voices: do you remember that one time those assassins showed you a shadow pony that got you squealing, only later to find yourself sharing a coffin with a several-thousand-year-old, talking corpse while everything else burned to the ground?

You always somehow survive these events, up to this point. With Alduin's soul in your belly giving you a slight indigestion and only all of your alcohol missing, you probably came out of the situation better than most.

It's been so long since you've had these voices talking in your head, that by now, they are you and you are them… to an extent anyway.

Considering that you grew up in the Imperial Capital, where pretty much everyone has a freaky side, you actually didn't really stand out all that much. So who cares if you muttered to yourself sometimes, you got the job done! And all the side-quests too, whatever they were. There were downsides to these eldritch voices, like how they convinced you to change your name to Gilgamesh and caused you to forget whatever name your parents gave you.

_Loading… You wake in a land where winter is coming._

Your vision was out of place as you warily blink open your eyes. The first thing you nearly did was throwing up, instead you chose to do the second thing that came to mind, which was collapsing onto the ground. Oh, it feels like stone. But there was little time for that. Sounds of chaos surrounded you on all fronts. It was the sound of a battle slowly rising to its climax. As you raised yourself up off the ground, you feast your eyes upon a sight that you had not seen even during the Siege of Whiterun.

Below, there were thousands of demonic looking Draugr-like things, howling and screaming at the few hundred human defenders. You were looking down on a battle from the precipice of a wall… you quickly realized that even the wall wasn't safe.

A giant ball of burning stone smashed into what looked like a ballistae just meters away from you, completely destroying a huge chunk of the wall. The screams of the men up here, some of them still alive though missing large chunks of their bodies, were rather irritating. Dozens of similar projectiles were shooting towards your general area from that sea of blackness that was these strange Draugr-like creatures. They moved swiftly and brutally, like the tides of the ocean, as they crashed into the lines of men below. It was utter chaos above, below, and all around, with these evil creatures coming out of every shadow. Where there wasn't fire, there were towering shadows left by thick forestation or ruined looking walls. The main battle was below you, though there was another small skirmish to your left. To your right, you saw a makeshift war camp. Behind you, there was only shadows of a valley covered in trees.

The humans—you aren't sure what race of man they belonged to, but you couldn't quite understand their words—shouted strangely around you. There were a few hundred archers on the wall, each trying to return fire against the thousands below. Strategically, this was a good point to defend from, but the humans below were charging out from the choke point that the wall you stood on offered and into the open battlefield.

The sky was dark with pillars of fire and smoke, and you could smell rotting flesh and fresh blood all around you, intoxicating and reminding you of your own battles. You had no time to question how you got here. Just as everything seemed like it couldn't get any more confusing, a young girl, a goofy looking man, and a giant dog charged passed you, nearly knocking you over. They were running to a sort of tower for some reason. The girl called something out to you, but you couldn't hear it and even if you did, you probably couldn't understand it.

[ ] Find some way to run away from this mess… [Write-in how.]  
[ ] Jump down and pick a fight with the biggest one you see… [Write-in how.]  
[ ] Grab the girl and teach her about manners… [Write-in how.]  
[ ] Other… [Write-in.]

[X] Equip Archmage's Robes  
[X] Equip Staff of Magnus

There was a light breeze from the horrible orgy of bloodshed and violence below that notified you that you… well, you were naked.

You quickly drape the Archmage's Robes over yourself with one hand and twirled the Staff of Magnus out of your pack with the other. You might have wanted to put on your armors beneath the robes, but you certainly didn't have the time to put them on. It won't do to miss the opportunity of making a great entrance, after all.

So, with the urging of all the voices in your head that called you a king for some reason, you felt something like a metaphorical bubble of power within your soul growing…

[X] How dare these filthy mongrels bother the King with their presence! Time to Show them who the One True King is! [Call a Storm] of Legendary Proportions with your epic voice on these Draugrs! Let them eat raining Lightning and Fire! Use [Turn Undead] to make the filthy Draugr flee your presence!

You let loose your Dragon Soul produced power in a shout to the heavens, "**STRUN BAH QO**!"

Through your ability to use the Storm Call shout has not yet improved passed only affecting those within 50 meters of you, it was more than enough to utterly transform the atmosphere of the battlefield, literally. The black skies swirled above you as a storm cloud brewed into place within seconds.

The first thing that came was not the lightning, but the rain.

Cold droplets splattered down rapidly, quenching all the flames of destruction that the strange, powerful Draugrs had catapulted towards the human defenders. This rain also quickly reduced all the torches and fire arrows that the humans were using into wet clubs and wet arrows. The rain began to obscure your sight even more just by sheer volume, though it looked like these monsters were able to see in the dark, since they kept charging anyway.

To further demoralize the human defenders, the first bolt of lightning dropped close to you, just below you in fact. One of the human archers was hit, instantly frying the man into a crisp. But the Storm you Called was uncaring and undiscriminating, as dozens of bolts of blinding light shattered the darkness left by the quenched torches by killing as many humans as these dark monsters. The humans noticed this and were smart enough to retreat to below the wall and back into the chokepoint, where the walls you stood upon blocked any bolts from hitting them. These dark monsters were not so lucky.

Every second, a dozen of them were cooked to a black crisp. You could hear their fragile death cries like a symphony of suffering all over the battlefield. Those that remained were quickly confused by this. Still, their numbers yet grew and the coming tide of darkness only seemed to pour out of every corner of darkness you couldn't see into. Even with the lightning raining down all over the place, there seemed to be more and more of them with each moment. From your bird's eye view, you estimate that you've killed about 200 of the human soldiers who have gathered here. There couldn't be more than 2,500 of them left. You might have fried maybe 500 of these Draugr so far, but just from what you could see, you estimate there's more than 20,000 more of them on the immediate field.

As a master mage, you are well versed in the magics of restoration… and in the repelling of undead.

With a gesture, bolts of pure white light—the tell tale signs of the Turn Undead spell—shot out of your finger tips and rained down upon these dark Draugrs. But as the spell impacted on the monsters, all your Magicka did was illuminate the Draugr's immediate vicinity for a few moments before dissipating. The Draugr charged on, as if nothing happened.

"Interesting, mongrels," you muttered as you attempted to turn them again. "You seem resistant. Are you not undead?" You wondered aloud. "Voices in my mind, what say you?"

From the corner of your eyes, you saw that the surviving archers on the wall were looking at you with expressions of shock, fear, and awe. And on your left, around one hundred of these dark beasts were charging at you. "How droll," you muttered, like a king.

[X] Use [Ebonyflesh]

Ebony is a mythical metal that is said to be the blood of the gods, crystallized through eons enduring the material world. It is harder than the steel you can smelt, but still malleable enough not to shatter, only bend. Due to its rarity and its heaviness, mages in the past have sought means of making a magical armor in the form of a second layer of skin above their skin with the properties of ebony but none of its downsides. It was the ever escalating arms race between mage schools, to create and perform greater and greater spells of power. That was how the [Ebonyflesh] spell was found.

And you might thank the gods, because the moment you finished casting this spell, one of the dark beasts' arrows found your forehead. You couldn't have seen the arrow, with the night being this dark, so you didn't know it was coming until something hard and sharp smashed into the ridge of your brow.

The moment the arrow head made contact, it shattered, being made of some kind of inferior iron dipped in black ichor. The shaft of the arrow bounced off, its flight path skewing greatly due to another property of the [Ebonyflesh] spell. Since ebony is a smooth, glassy material, when compounded with your forehead, the arrow simply rolled another direction.

These mongrels were getting bold, but they weren't stupid. They knew that your Storm had a range, and seeing this, they backed off. They could have also done this because the human troops were no longer fighting in the open field, like a bunch of idiots.

Seriously, why would their commander do that? It's as if they were baiting the dark beasts. But there were no reinforcements, no flanking maneuvers, that you could see unaided.

The monsters continued to move back, until they were almost one hundred meters away, twice the distance that your Storm could reach. There, they starting moving forward their catapults. You could only hear the sounds of wood, but there were little time for you to contemplate these contraptions, things that hurled missiles greater than anything you've seen in Skyrim, because several loose blocks of the dark beasts began forming. Instead of charging, they began to burn their arrow heads and rain flaming shots down on the walls.

All around you, the defenders were dying. Blood seemed to be everywhere… its smell intoxicating. At least half a hundred arrows had rained down around you, but many of them were deflected. After the first dozen, the arrows that actually made contact with your body started to actually impact against your body. By the end of this first wave of arrows, you felt maybe twenty small bruises all over chest and shoulders.

[X] Throw down some [Wall of Storms]

You threw down a few shots of the spell [Wall of Storms], but to little effect. The electricity formed by this spell moved not at the speed of natural lightning like your Storm Call, but at the speed which Magicka could be guided by your mind. The further enemies were, the easier they could see it coming. And see it coming they did. The spell was taxing, but you were able to scatter the dark beasts' lines with it, leaving crackling ground covered in ashes. You had hit at least two dozen of your targets, but the enemy commanders adapted quickly and made the lines even looser, making the [Wall of Storms] a spell too inefficient for kills.

[X] Summon some [Storm Thrall]

You try to summon a Storm Thrall, but without any enchanted items to boost your casting into the ranks of a master, your spell costs you so much more than it usually did. It cost you almost all your Magicka, in fact. A single Storm Thrall sprung up amidst your enemies for a few moments, in which it devastated the enemy ranks, before its matrix was shattered by one of the huge beasts, who viciously crushed your summoning. The moment it died, it exploded in an orgy of electrical energy, illuminating the battlefield for you. Due to this, you saw several mage-like beasts in the back of the lines, commanding the beasts as if these mage-beasts were generals.

Seeing you falter from a drain of Magicka, the dark beasts began howling into the air, goading you. At least ten of their largest, easily towering over twice your size, charged through their ranks without a care for their comrades. These large ones roared as they approached the frontlines and charged, with over two thousand of the smaller, human-sized beasts. "This affront…" You growl, but are interrupted by an inhuman howl.

The beasts to your left had charged through the sparse human defenders on the wall. You spotted a few of the humans who have run away, into their war camps. Those who were left were all either too tired to run or too injured to move.

[X] Then use [Lightning Storm]

You began channeling one of your favorite spells. In moments, all these pesky pests will disappear! Your arms swirled, as if holding an invisible ball at your abdomen. The closest beast was just a meter away and charging rapidly. Black blood drooled out of its fanged lips and you heard the screech of its poorly made armor grind against the stone floor. Its steps were uneven, but unrelenting.

The ball was no longer invisible, it was a ball of power, scintillating within your palms.

[X] FUS RO DAH!

The power was gathered, the spell was formed and its shape stabilizing within your hands… then, before a blade oozing with poisonous, black blood could break through your defenses and slashed at your left shoulder, your head turned towards your immediate assailant and you uttered, "**FUS RO DAH!**"

Having trained for so long with Paarthurnax, the power of your Thu'um—of this specific Thu'um—was greater than that of an ordinary practitioner of the Voice. The tiles beneath your feet vibrated as you spoke and the ground beneath the beast's feet was carved into the air. Needless to say, the beast found itself flying backwards at many times the velocity of its charge, and breaking into several pieces as it collided with the beast behind it, knocking the immediate group that had reached the bridge back.

And then the spell was ready.

Your surroundings immediately brightened up as your palms shot out. A stream of concentrated Magicka and electricity shot through the beast in a beam wider than your head. The beam of energy coming from you was so bright; all you could see was white. With a wild, mad grin, you weaved and waved your palms around, the heated beam disintegrating everything it touched into ash. The mongrel closest to your location was burned into three pieces (missing five other pieces that had turned to ash) before the residual energy of your spell left on the mongrel's wounds caused the mongrel to also burst into hot ash. On such a thin bridge, simply moving your aim slightly would have cut through all these beasts who dared charge you.

But something about being surrounded by darkness in the den of a chaotic battle made you go into a mad daze, shooting your beam of white lightning in every direction. Moments later, as your reserves ran dry, you stood panting, surrounded by ash. There were deep, meters long gashes in the walls and floors all around you. So this was the smell of melted rock. You haven't met it in ages.

Below, you noticed that the fighting had resumed and your Storm had faded. The distant tower in the left seemed to be shaking, as if there was a fight going on inside it too. Come to think of it, the walls you stood on were shaking too. Maybe you shouldn't have waved that [Lightning Storm] around.

[X] Gilgamesh the being you fight are not the dead but the corrupted living!

"I know that, voice-in-my-head!" You growled at yourself. "Tell me something I don't know. Damn it, I really wish my enchanted gear hadn't been melted by Alduin."

As you surveyed the battlefield, waiting for your Magicka to return, you muttered to the piles of ash, "You guys look like you could use a drink even more than me." Perhaps it would be wise to choose some kind of action soon though or else this wall might collapse with you still on it.

[ ] Jump down! (Write-in how)  
[ ] Check out the tower! (Write-in how)  
[ ] Loot their camp! (Write-in how)  
[ ] Scout around! (Write-in how)  
[ ] Write-in action!

[x] Move to a less shaky area while looking around the wall to get a better feel for how the battle is going on here.

Hastily, you hopped around the shaky wall as pieces of it began to fall and crush the humans below you. As large chunks of it crumbled down, you noted that you were not on so much a wall, but it was more like a bridge… a bridge that was about to crumble.

You ran hurriedly towards the closest safe area, which happened to be towards the tower. Just as you reached the tower, around ten meters of the bridge collapsed, crushing more humans.

Surprisingly, these chunks of the wall have actually provided the humans with some extra barriers. However, this was quickly negated when the giant beasts charged through their lines and simply shattered the stone into pieces. The human lines were being pushed back further now. By now they had their torches relit, and you saw several human warriors charging through the lines, each getting a kill every moment. They wore some kind of white uniform. There was also a man who looked like he was in charge, wearing a large golden armor. You grumbled at the sight, "How pretentious."

[x] Put on the Ebony armor WITH Arch-Mage robes over the plate.

Seeing no enemies around, you found that this would be a good time to put on your Ebony Armor. It took you almost a minute, but when you were comfortably snug within your armor, you felt so much safer. Ebony has many properties, one of which was its ability to keep at a cool, tepid temperature. This made it extremely difficult to smelt or forge, but you couldn't help but marvel at how comfortable you were in it. The armor was almost as heavy as iron though, so can't run long distances in it. As an afterthought, you strapped on the Archmage's Robes.

[x] Cast Call to arms and Guardian circle

Using your entire Magicka reserves, you cast these two greater spells. Your health, stamina and offensive martial skills have risen greatly, for the duration of this fight. A glowing circle of brilliant energy surrounded you, and you felt the pain from your bruises quickly alleviate.

[x] Dragon Call

You took a deep breath and cried, "**ODAHVIING**!" After a few moments, you realized nothing happened. You grimaced and grumbled angrily.

By now, the battle was becoming worse for the humans. There were less than 1,500 of them left and many of the giant beasts have broken into their lines. Several have been slain, but there were a few that were still wrecking havoc. You noticed that there were no more catapult shots towards the wall and most of the beasts were in a charge now. "These mongrels think my inaction means I perished? How presumptuous!" You growled.

[x] Throw up some more Walls of Storm

You attempt to throw the [Wall of Storms] spell around, now that the enemies are closer and easily within sight. However, they were too intermingled with the human soldiers now for you in interfere with the battle directly. Instead, you could only use this spell to make a wall of death to keep more reinforcements of the beasts from attacking. This caused the beast lines to stop after half of one of their waves was disintegrated as they tried to forcefully charge through the magical lightning.

And then waves of catapulted, flaming missiles and fire arrows resumed. However, with your full suit of ebony on, they might as well have tried throwing pebbles at you, seeing as how ineffective the arrows were. Your [Ebonyflesh] spell has ended.

[x] Also throw some Mayhem spells

You attempt to cause magical mayhem within their ranks, but for some reason, they were able to throw off illusions with ease. You could hear the beast commanders, the ones that wielded staves like mages, shrieking with something akin to laughter at you.

It could be noted that only when your spells disintegrated the giant beasts did you feel your Azura's Star fill with another soul. Though, when you killed those stocky, shorter beasts, your Azura's Star also filled. There must be something like 200 souls within it now.

[x] After that just use Fireballs, Chain Lightning

"This is getting annoying," you muttered as you gathered Magicka within your hands again. Then you began raining [Fireball] and [Chain Lightning] spells upon the beasts. While they tried to escape your arcs of lightning, these beasts could not run out of the reach of your fire. Your [Chain Lightning] spells only came down on the immediate battlefield, causing death on both the human lines and the engaged beasts at the same time. Many of the giant beasts were killed during this time, giving the human lines to reform.

Your [Fireball] spells could easily reach up to 200 meters away, and with its cheap cost, you threw at least twenty of them in a chain. This was enough to set most of the open field on fire, and caused most of the battlefield to light up. The forests and marshes were burning, as they should under your glaze.

You noticed that the beast mages were trying to put out your Magicka induced fires, to little effect. "That is peculiar," you muttered as you stroked your chin slowly and observed the beast commanders, "They clearly can use some form of magic. Why haven't they struck back at me… unless they can't reach me?"

Below, you noted that the obnoxious pretender in golden armor was being held above the head of one of the giant beasts. In a few moments, he would probably be dead too from the looks of it.

[X] Save him!

The air chilled around your hands as a lance of hardened ice formed and shot out at a tenth of the speed of sound. As it soared through the air, the lance thickened and lengthened into the [Icy Spear] spell. It stabbed into the monster's shoulder, but not on the side it was holding the fool. The monster roared in agony and before your second [Icy Spear] could form, it threw the fool up at you.

The monster was weak by then, but its throw was still impressive—launching the gold-clad fool half way up to you before he fell and made a rather resounding crunch. You noticed that many of the human soldiers paused and were staring.

Your second [Icy Spear] found its mark and piercing through the monster's skull and leave it without any facial features at all.

"Hm," you watched impassively. "No great loss to humanity; someone who prances around in gold armor is asking to be killed."

And then you began casting a chain of various lower level destruction spells, seeing as they all worked marvelously on these beasts. The effect was devastating, as hundreds were massacred each moment. But many of them were escaping into the wilds now, going even further than your reach.

With your voice returned, you uttered a soft, "**Feim**," which caused your body to become encased in eerie, green light as all physical properties of your body faded from view. A moment later, you landed on the ground near where the gold-clad fool had fallen. He was a mess, though with all that grime and blood on him, he might have passed as one of the other hundreds of dead human warriors on the field. "What a wretched sight…"

Just as you uttered that, your body faded back into the material realm. To those around you, you might as well have appeared out of thin air, with gaseous wisps of green light slowly fading around your outline.

Seeing you drop to the ground and most of the remaining beasts that were engaging the humans dead, horns were sounded and many of those who were too far for you to run a sword through (even though you didn't have one) turned and ran for their lives. It seems like these enemy commanders were not used to dealing with someone like you. That left you and these wary humans around you. For some reason, they looked rather frightened. "Well, this is certainly a welcoming sight. It's better than the Nords just completely ignoring my presence after commenting on never seeing me kill a dragon before," you grumbled.

At the sound of your voice, the humans looked at you with even more fear. Many of them were backing up, though the white-clad warriors were slowly circling you. You felt irritated and said, "Do you people have no respect? At least answer me or something… so rude!"

No one replied.

And then the tower above you exploded with a fiery light and its tower erupted with fire. Someone was playing with some dangerous fire magic up there, for you to see it so clearly and explosively down here!

[ ] Go check it out, somehow.  
[ ] Kill the rest of these humans.  
[ ] Ignore the humans and eat a sweet roll. Ask for some mead after.  
[ ] Ignore the humans and start looting everyone.  
[ ] Go chase down the beasts and have a grand hunt. They might taste good.  
[ ] Just leave this place.  
[ ] Write-in.

[X] Help them and eat a snack.

The human soldiers were either too shocked by your appearance or too frightened of you-they must be!-because they stilled and stiffened the moment you began to wave your hands in the air. A moment later, a vast, glowing circle of healing surrounded you. Those closest to you instantly saw relief of pain and their healing accelerated to such a pace that they could see their flesh mend before their eyes.

Another wave caused a towering golem of ice, even taller and thicker than the giant monster that killed the fool, formed at your feet. It immediately charged at the retreating beasts, each of its steps causing the earth to shake. Its stomps crushed the smaller beasts and any larger beast were thrown into the air by the sweeps of its arms. After cutting a whole path into the shrieking beasts, it ran into one of the giant beasts. For a moment, your Atronach looked like it met its match when the beast smashed into its torso and caused visible spiderweb shaped cracks. Then the beast gripped the Frost Atronach by the torso and attempted to lift it up.

The Frost Atronach did not struggle. It was immune to panic; its arms raised and smashed down on the beast's skull, crushing its head like a hammer would a rotten tomato.

While this was happening, you took your time to take out a nice, pink-glazed sweet roll. You remembered that you lifted this one from Balgruuf's court, just before his dark elf bodyguard. You savored the chunks of crystallized sugar on the tip of your tongue while you asked, "Mm, sho ghuys, wha's goin' on 'ere?"

Seeing no one reacting, you swallowed your rather large bite and asked again, "Hey, can anyone tell me what this is all about?" Some of the soldiers backed away from you. Maybe it was because you were grinning at them with your Atronach making a lot of splatters behind you, but you doubt it. Some of them began whispering to each other, making strange, lame noise. Lame, like how some of the more bookish mages you know, who spend their whole lives alone and locked in some dark tower. Ah, right, everyone else called it 'sophisticated'. That's right. But strangely enough, you couldn't understand them.

You pointed up at the tower and asked, "So can someone explain what that's all about? And... talk so that I can understand you?"

A dark skinned man with a rather nice looking beard and slicked back hair approached you saying soft words-still not understandable though. He was one of those soldiers who wore a grey-ish white robe with his elaborate plate and chain armor. It looked kind of nice, maybe you should... oh, you just realized: you can't understand what they are all saying, so they must be speaking in a different language!

[ ] Punch the guy and take his clothes.  
[ ] Get up there to the tower and join the fun.  
[ ] Look for mead.  
[ ] See if the Golden Fool is alive and then take his armor.  
[ ] Write-in.

[X] Write-in – Take a look, throw a heal, take a jump.

Taking a look under the [Detect Life] spell told you a lot about the beasts' tactics. There were almost no survivors on the ground, those who were still alive were staggering around with their friends. You could see many sparks in the distance growing smaller. It was as if these beasts were using the human soldiers...

The gold-clad fool was a strange sight. Only half of him seemed to be glowing under [Detect Life]. His legs were both dead, the right leg dead from the knee and the left dead from the thigh. His left arm was also completely dead while his right arm was flickering. The rest of his body was too… in fact he was so dim that you almost dismissed him.

Seeing him so weak was rather sad. The way the soldiers looked at him, he was probably a leader. You also noted offhandedly that some of the female soldiers dressed like priests were glaring at you with a rather fanatical glare not unlike how the Thalmor vindicators used to look at you before running to their deaths. Still, the fool looked like he was moments away from dying.

You pitied the fool.

So you threw a greater healing spell. It caused him to regain consciousness, though he would need help out of his crushed armor, which didn't look comfortable. He looked like he was suffocating—

—Another explosion rocked the tower, this time blowing the top half off. You looked up and saw one of the giant beasts wrestling with a heavily armored man, while falling out of the tower. On top of the tower, you saw two women fighting a group of the beasts. One of the women was going toe-to-toe with another one of the giant beasts while the other woman was throwing fireballs around. Both were being peppered by arrows…

…with only a few seconds, you…

[ ] …Save the warrior girl!  
[ ] …Save the mage girl!  
[ ] …Save the falling man!  
[ ] …Save the golden fool!  
[ ] …Let them all die and eat another sweet roll.  
[ ] …Write-in!

[X] Plan Facehugger Mark 2 – Feat of Kingly Prowess

As Dragonborn, you are the child of a god. The dragon soul within roars as your mouth opens to literally shout at time itself. You command it to obey, to stand still, "**TIID KLO UL!**" At your current skill, you are only like one of the thousands of other dragons: capable of using the power, but not on the level of which Alduin was able to command it. Even if the other dragons acknowledged your Thu'um, you could not truly make time stand still.

But your power was still enough to fit 160 seconds into 16.

The world skittered down into a snail's pace. Rain drops from the residual power of your Storm slowed so that you could even weave around them in a walk. But you turned your attention upwards and stretched the power of your mind and commanded the supernatural force of magicka within you to move. Invisible tendrils grasped the man and flipped him up, over the beast just as you shot a green bolt that caused the already slowing beast to freeze like a statue. You then placed the boy over the beast.

Then you dropped a frost atronach atop of the other giant beast at the top of the tower. Your aim could have used some help, but it didn't land on the women. It had instead missed the giant and landed on some of the lesser beasts. The fire at the top of the tower wasn't doing it any favors and you could tell that it was taking damage from the heat, and it was a little irritating to bind so far away without it simple running towards to instead of attacking the giant beast. But it so happens that when it did try to initially barrel towards you, it charged at the giant beast—which knocked it off of the tower.

Your ice atronach now stands atop of the edge of the tower, not sure of what to do.

You also try to throw spells of restoration at the women, but these spells move slower the further they travel away from you. In fact, in order to be within range of healing the women, you had to levitate yourself back up to the bridge in attempt to get within range. When this didn't seem to work, you levitated yourself up to the tower.

You arrived beside your frost atronach at the edge of the tower, while still under the effects of time moving at a tenth of its real speed. You arrived just in time to see the warrior girl get skewered by three spears held by those half-sized beasts, and the mage girl was just clubbed in the neck. The mage girl's neck was twisted in an incredibly uncomfortably looking angle while the warrior girl was choking out what looked like half a liter of blood while more was leaking out of other parts of her body.

Restorative power spilled out of your hands at the girls, fixing the angle of one girl's neck and disintegrating the spears within the other's flesh. You notice that both were moments from fainting, though your healing spell should restore them to peak strength if you maintain it for a few moments more.

The warrior girl is a short, petite girl a very elegant and aristocratic face, even while covered with blood. She has dark red hair worn in a ponytail, though the front had become unbound and was whipping her face—annoyingly if her expression was on the subject. She had a set of thick leather armor on and it looked like she had been dancing around these beasts with a long sword and a short sword combination.

The mage girl is slightly taller than the warrior girl, though not by much. You suspect these people are not Nords at the very least, being this short. She was a light brunette, a little plain in features, though with rather large and bright eyes. She also had rather large breasts, visible enough through even that robe that should have hid her figure. Her staff was glowing with white light even as she was falling, as if she was in the middle of casting a spell. She was wearing a set of plain, blue robes, not unlike what you expect apprentices might wear in the College.

"Now why would students be fighting here," you muttered as you straightened out your robes and watched you frost atronach turn around and charge at the beasts. It was always amusing to watch arrogant beasts get put in their place by a superior force, especially under the effects of slowed time. Your atronach had smashed into the beast group and pushed them all against the stairwell… and kept charging until they were red paste.

You turned around and looked down. The gold-clad fool was being helped out of his armor by several of his attendants who were still alive. The warrior boy who fell out of the tower had not noticed that the beast was paralyzed, and had been in the process of choking it when it fell on one of the smaller pines. Had it landed on one of the branches, they might have survived the fall. However, they were unlucky enough to fall on the main trunk, where the beast had gotten itself impaled. The warrior had been too slow to move and it looked like his neck—one of the few areas that his armor did not completely cover—had been penetrated by one of the larger branches.

You also saw that the human camp still had a bonfire going. There were something like a hundred bottles littered around there, probably used to be filled with alcohol too.

The mage girl took one look at you and fainted. The warrior girl seemed to not have any strength to even hold her long sword. She had her short sword in both hands and was pointing it at you with shaking knees. She was quivering, looking at you with wide, terror-filled blue eyes.

Under the circumstances, you probably looked like a vibrating wraith, moving too quick for her to comprehend. In the corner of your eyes, you also saw that there were a few beasts still roaming the tower, coming up from the stairs, under [Detect Life]. At least both girls were glowing rather brightly when viewed under this perception. There was also a dead dog just behind the shivering warrior girl and there was a dead midget near the stairs.

And then the effect of your Shout ended. You…

[ ] …Try to calm the girl down and… (Write-in?)  
[ ] …Go check out the gold-clad fool and… (Write-in?)  
[ ] …Kidnap the mage girl and… (Write-in?)  
[ ] …Loot the human camp and… (Write-in?)  
[ ] …Write-in? (Write-in?)

[X] Facehugger Quest Mark 3 – I do what I want.

With all these voices in your head arguing about your motives, you felt a headache coming on. Luckily, one of the more dominant voices was able to rally the rest so that you could decide your next action rather than contemplate your past.

Wielding the [Voice of the Emperor], a rare hereditary ability inherited by few chosen Imperials, you spoke in with a charismatic calm, "I am harmless to you, if you don't try to skewer me with that puny blade in your hands." Your voice is empowered with the will of the Imperials, that all who listened would understand your words and intent. They might not accept it and you might not understand them, but you could at least get your point across.

When the girl blinked at you in surprise, you took advantage of the moment. In a single stride, you moved close—too close for her to swing at you—and grasped her feminine wrists in your hand. With your other gauntleted hand, you brushed aside her soft-looking amber hair and said with the same power of the [Voice of the Emperor], "You are clearly of noble lineage, given your beauty and arms. Calm yourself and I will help you," you gave her cheeks a gentle caress before adding, "milady."

Immediately you turned to heal them both with a grand healing spell. It would only take a moment to heal them so completely that they would be fresh. However, one of the faults of the healing spells is that it does not revive the unconscious. With a little outside stimulus, you could bring the mage girl out easily.

The warrior girl squeaked indignantly as you drew away from her, but you couldn't understand what she was saying. She seems to have a rather fiery temper, which was cute and amusing, if nothing else. Like a pet cat or something.

You slapped the mage girl lightly on the cheeks, and used the remaining duration of your [Voice of the Emperor] ability to keep her calm when she woke. You imagined that anyone who woke to seeing an elaborate suit of ebony plate would be quite frightened too. The armor has the image of a dark warlord or something, according to what you overhear sometimes.

Hearing some beasts growling up the stairwell, you made a lazy wave at your atronach. It was still mostly intact, perhaps with two thirds of its health remaining.

The frost atronach stomped down and started a slaughter.

"Now that that's taken care of," you stood straight and posed heroically at the top of the tower with the two girls still staring at you incredulously. The redhead seemed a little red through all the blood splatter on her cheeks, and she was stamping her feet and trying to get your attention. You idly ruffle her hair and turned to look for something more interesting, "Quiet, poppet. I'm bored."

It seems like there were some reserve troops of about 150 human troops who were marching down. Many of them were either in damaged armor or in a kind of heavy armor with a purple and gold tabard. The camp looks defenseless, with only a quartermaster and some injured dogs idling around.

The gold-clad fool had been cut out of his armor. What a waste, you had actually felt some traces of magical enchantment different from what normal, soul-empowered enchantments on the gold plate. It was shredded now. The fool was being supported by two of his troops while an old woman, who was dressed like a mage, was using some kind of healing magic on him. He was shouting enthusiastically for some reason. "What a fool," you shake your head, to the puzzlement of the girls. The mage girl seemed to watching you with some fear now, as if you were an abomination or something.

You saw under the power of [Detect Life] that just outside of 250 meters away from the battlefield, too far for human scouts to see from below, many of the beasts were regrouping. They seemed to be changing tactics and many of them were dragging survivors away. There also seemed to be some going underground. They seemed to be splitting off into multiple groups, several preparing to make a climb through the cliffs and forests in an attempt to perform what seemed to be a flanking maneuver.

You…

[ ] …leave this place. It's boring!  
[ ] …go loot the camp for alcohol to go with sweet rolls.  
[ ] …attempt to take command of the human troops.  
[ ] …cast traps everywhere and then rain death from above.  
[ ] …something else?

[X] Facehugger? Vel? Headache! Blue beer.

_Drip, drop._

Oh, Talos damn it. That crappy sound effect at the back of your mind is back. You feel conflicted: on one hand you could show off some more, but on the other hand, you have been too long without a drink. It wasn't like you drank just after killing Alduin after all, no matter how much you wish it true.

Honestly, you could even eat the cabbages in your pack, being as thirsty as you are.

Unless you tried to strain yourself and reap unknown returns, it would probably be best not to call up a storm yet. It wasn't as if you could anyway, the power of your Thu'um was currently exhausted from temporarily making Time your slave.

"This place bores me," you growled to the girls. Speaking of the girls, the redhead was now sulking and pouting at you and the little mage girl was staring up at you with some kind of fear mixed with admiration. It looks like both of them had realized that they couldn't communicate with you, at least. The redhead seemed to be arguing with the redhead about your nature. If you had actually been able to understand this strange tongue of theirs, you could have cared. As it was, you were rather annoyed with this whole affair.

Waving your hands before you like a master orchestrator and harnessing the power of Aetherius and in a few moments, you had almost one thousand [Rune] spells laid in every direction. As you weaved hundreds more in every direction, covering every way and route of the beasts, you might have also placed some near the humans on accident. If the humans were smart they would not touch—ah, one of them stepped on one. That explosion from the [Fire Rune] spell consumed a good dozen at the very least… Well, they won't be stepping near your runes anymore.

You sighed at the man's stupidity, "You'd think they'd know not to step on those bright circles of light." But then again, humans liked shiny things. You'd know, since you like shiny things too. The girls watched in awe and fear as the battlefield began to explode with a myriad of fire, lightning, and ice. Deafening explosions rocked the world, causing the earth to shake. The tower was wobbling now, and you thought this would be a good time to go loot the human camp.

After being in Skyrim for so long, some of the brutishness seems to have rubbed off on to you. At least that is the reason you gave yourself, when you grabbed both girls and slung one over each shoulder. Both of them cried out, but you just focused on levitating yourself off of the tower. Just as you began your decent, the tower collapsed into a crumbled pile of giant rocks.

When you arrived at the camp, you noticed that all of the bottles by the fires were empty. Damnation!

You dropped both girls on some hay and began looking around for something to drink. It wasn't long before you found the quartermaster's supplies, but without a quartermaster in sight. There were stacks of weapons and armor here but also some other things.

There were a few sacks of herbs. After tasting through them, you noticed that most of them had a kind of healing property, while the rest were deadly poisons.

You also found some primitive traps, not unlike those that you could find in the dungeons in Skyrim. But they were not nearly as deadly.

You also found a nice, big leather sack.

Lastly, you found twenty tiny jars of some kind of red substance. It looked like some kind of drink, but it smelled like medicine. Ugh. There were also fifteen vials of some kind of glowing, blue liquid. This stuff reminded you of absinth, though this was much brighter. It smelled rather earthy, with a hint of electricity. You didn't smell any alcohol, but if this was a _magical_, alcoholic drink, then maybe the smell is hidden?

You could still hear distant explosions of your runes. There was enough fire and lightning to light up even the dark, cloudy sky by this point.

[ ] Chug it all. And eat all the herbs too, like a hungry hippo.  
[ ] Put everything in your bags and run.  
[ ] Check on the battlefield for loot.  
[ ] Write-in.

[X] It can't hurt if you only drink one!

With that in mind, you raised a vial of this blue stuff above your head. It is very pretty and very shiny. The liquids inside seem almost alive, as if calling to you, 'Drink me, Gil! Drink me like a king!' Of course, you training and education as the Archmage enabled you to realize that this was a diluted source of energy, not unlike the Magicka you draw from the stars. However, the liquid seems less connected to the Aetherius, and more connected to the other planes…

"Ah," the mage girl gasped at you. She attempted to halt your actions, but paused and frowned. The noble girl next to her looked confused and inquired something of her.

At least tones and inflections in speech seem similar to what you are used to.

"This is like that time I tried Skooma," You muttered. "'It's just a single one,' they said. 'It'll be fun,' they said. I still don't remember what I did that week with Sanguine. Bottoms up!" You chugged the whole vial. It must have been half a liter of blue stuff. Then things got blurry, like a dream, images flying by…

_…Electricity crackling everywhere…_  
_…The world was on fire and I can't stop!_  
_Meteors flying from all parts of the sky…_  
_…ha! Hic…_  
_…Those little beasts are getting fried! Leave some skeleton…_  
_…Alduin in the sky with diamonds…_  
And then, your vision faded to blackness.

"Ugh…" you groaned. "What happened?"

Your eyes cracked open. "Ow, the light burns!" You close your eyes again. Hm, it feels awfully chilly in here. Hm…

You opened your eyes again. You seem to have fallen asleep on a nice chair. It was really wide, but kind of bumpy. You looked down and realized it was made from ivory. No, wait, that's not ivory, that's just bones.

You were sitting there, on a throne of skulls apparently, without your pants. You felt a headache pounding, like a drummer playing tango with your skull.

The redhead was there at your feet, naked except with your ebony chest plate on her. She was clinging rather tightly to your right leg. You felt as if she was cutting off blood flow already. The brunette was leaning against your left leg and cradling your [Staff of Magnus] like a hug-pillow. She isn't wearing anything, but she was using your [Complete Archmage's Robes] as a blanket.

There must be over ten thousand skulls here. Your throne of skulls was more like a giant pile, at the center of what used to be the battlefield last night. At least, you think it was last night. Looking over the battlefield, you note that there were still ten meter tall icicles everywhere. The fire seems to have burned the wilds to ashes, because everything in every direction you look were black, glassy earth. The human wall was almost completely disintegrated, with only three pieces of the wall still standing, like three large boulders that bordered the forest and the black, glassy desert.

The sun was up in the sky now, you note with some annoyance.

There were several scavenger birds circling above your head. You groaned as you struggled to get the aching feeling out of your muscles to stand up, "What I would give for a potion of cure poison…" In the meantime, you might as well shoot the birds down with some lightning. You could use some breakfast.

Several arcs of lightning and some beer (where did this come from?) later, you studied your surroundings again. The girls were still asleep, probably too tired to notice. The humans seem to have all disappeared, and all the voices in your head were also moaning about hangovers. You wished the whole world would just shut up.

From the tracks you noticed, the troops marched away, towards the north-west. They didn't leave you any presents which made them seem like a rather ungrateful bunch.

At least you still have your loot.

You grumble and try to remember what happened last night. You might have gotten a little rough after you drank the blue potion. It clearly wasn't alcoholic, but you also clearly lost all inhibitions the moment you drank it… it was like having a sudden burst of energy, an alternate energy source…

The Archmage in you found this very intriguing.

The moment you drank it, what you could remember was incredibly fuzzy, but… your consciousness was brought over to a parallel plane, of sorts. It was twisted and strange, with everything always changing like a dream. There had been a shadowy, black city in the distance, floating in the sky. That had been the only thing that was consistent about that plane…

And then, you were approached by a gigantic beast. It was hulking and spiked, with a proud voice and posture. It wasn't the only one; there were hundreds—maybe thousands—that approached you. Some flew, some crawled, some swam through the earth and others walked like men. They seemed to be talking to you and you…

[ ] …killed and ate them all.  
[ ] …made a deal with them.  
[ ] …did nothing as they ate you.  
[ ] …tried to snap out of it.  
[ ] …fornicated with them all.

[X] …Killed and ate them all. What a fortuitous turn of events!

There must have been hundreds of spirits. Here in their native realm, they followed only one rule: dying here is to die forever. In this place known as the fade, anything could happen, reality was a dream. You didn't know this until the tenth Pride Demon you ate. And so it happens that killing and absorbing this things into you, not unlike how you take in Dragon Souls or the power of Aetherius, grants you certain benefits. Knowledge, for one, but there was power in it too. You were a monster amongst monsters, luring them to you with power before devouring them whole. And not all of them were malevolent demons either. There were a few in between your gulps that were something more, something purer. You devoured not just demons of pride, desire, rage, sloth, and hunger, but also spirits of compassion, faith, justice, hope, and valor.

They were the same things, beings comprised of emotions and thoughts. That was all they were and more, but given form.

What a great feast, what a horrific maelstrom of chaos, what a mighty gathering of power… and yet the aftertaste was not something you wanted lingering. It was like eating everything at once, all the emotions of a man and more, in the purest forms. Through taking in their power, you gained their power. Through taking in their knowledge, you gained their knowledge. It was not complete, being far more fragmented than anything else, but with so many souls to devour many gaps were filled. It came with not just knowledge, but also memories of horrific slaughters, unspeakable orgies, and untold destruction. But on the flip side, you also gained memories of incredible bravery, wondrous kindness, and miraculous goodness.

You awakened with strange knowledge of the world. Most of it was what was supposed to be common knowledge, but some… some of it was lore that have been thousands of years forgotten. Other pieces of information were that which no one should have known, and no one living did ever know.

At least you know from one of the Pride demons you devoured, that this was Ferelden. And those beasts are called Darkspawn. And this war, and…

Ah! The Trade Tongue, Elvish, Orlesian, Arcanum… languages of the world were in your grasp. Perhaps not the most up to date, with so many spirits who crawled out of the wood works the moment your soul appeared in the Fade. You might not know the inane things like what was in style, but you should be able to communicate fine.

You have a lot of knowledge, most of which is lore that is dated and forgotten, but none of the practical. You could probably use this strange brand of magic these natives used, but inwardly you found it rather backwards to only draw power from a plane like those of Oblivion rather than to draw from the pure power of the aedra. Still, this knowledge would come to use. There were many tricks the natives used that you have never heard of. Magic of pure force? Blood magic? Spirit magic?

How exciting! Though, you wonder how you would be able to use this magic if you couldn't reach the Fade from Nirn…

While you didn't gain any skill in their magic, you gained something else through eating so many spirits. It might not be a good thing to become a being of psychic energy, but that was basically what these "demons" and "spirits" were comprised of. You could probably transform, like one would will into a werewolf, into one of these beings of psychic power by using what you absorbed of them. What you absorbed wasn't even close to their full power, but maybe only a hundredth… though, you are unsure if you could even control _that_ if you transformed.

And you aren't sure if you could revert to your own, real form afterwards.

How dangerous… and interesting. You feel like you want to explore this later. Anyway! It's not like you have a massive pool of mana made from devoured souls or something, right? Ha! You certainly have plenty of power to explore all of this later. But now, here in this place on the edge of the land to the Korcari Wilds, what is there to do?

The redhead girl chose this time to wake up, "Ugu… why is the sun so bright?" She groaned before trying to flip over. It so happened that she flipped over the wrong way, and spent the next 30 seconds rolling down a hill of skulls. "Ow, ow, ow! Erica! Help," she cried at the bottom of the pile. "Oh Maker, the darkspawn guts dried up on my hair! How am I supposed to get this out?!"

"Shut up, Shep," the mage girl grumbled before snuggling up to your leg a little further, "I'm trying to sleep. Your screeching isn't helping the hangover."

The warrior girl pouted and whined, "But when did I get this huge armor… oh, crap, this is that guy's armor, isn't it?" In a lower voice, she added, "This is like that story that Alistair told about the frozen pole in winter. Wait, where's Alis… oh…"

The mage girl, apparently named Erica, sighed and stood up without a care for her modesty, "Don't dwell too much on it. You've only known the guy for, what? A day? At least half of the army survived. That's better than what Duncan thought was possible, you know?"

"Hmph!" The redhead replied maturely.

"Don't be a spoiled brat, Lady Cousland," the mage girl looked around for something, probably her clothes. "I'm just surprised we're still alive. This guy has to be an abomina… oh! Um... good morning," her voice grew softer until it was just a squeak. Ah, little Erika has noticed you then. She looked embarrassed and suddenly tried to cover herself up with _your_ robes.

You…

[ ] …Greet them good day as if it was just a normal day.  
[ ] …Try to intimidate them into submission like a brute.  
[ ] …Kind of want to drink more of that Lyrium. You kind of crave it a little now.  
[ ] …Ignore them and run.  
[ ] …Write-in.

[X] A king is a king, is a king, is a… Vanathor?

As the girls both quickly fumbled to get dressed, you casually don on your armor and robe while saying with a supremely satisfied smile, "Women!" You addressed them imperiously. "I have seen your valor in battle! I have seen you fight and struggle with your hopeless situation, crawling like the worm that wishes to fly. But unlike the pathetic worm, you flew! Thus I deem you above the common mongrels and worthy!"

"I, er… what?" The mage girl stared incredulously, surprised that you could even speak her language.

The redhead seemed to be the better trained of the two. The moment she was at least somewhat properly dressed, she curtseyed and bowed her back slightly, with her eyes still on you. Then she said, "I thank you, Lord ah…" Before you gave your name to her, she broke down into a fit of giggle. "Oh, Maker save me! Ha ha ha!" She clutched her stomach and laughed loudly, "You sound like my grandfather! And doing that without your pants on! Ha!"

The mage girl grabbed the redhead's shoulder and hissed quickly, "Shep! Don't make fun of it! Er, him! He's an abomination! He could…"

"Ahem," you cleared your throat. It was obvious that the two were dazzled by your overwhelming manliness, but you had to continue speaking. You must inform them of their new prestigious positions as your new harem girls. Since your housecarls aren't here, you definitely need a few new girls to carry your things for you. That dragon bone in your pack was starting to get heavy. "I have seen your desperation and hopelessness and I must say it was quite a delight to see you struggle. So I must preserve your beauty, for you are mine! For I am the greatest of kings, one who even gods cannot control and can only struggle to guide! I am a hero—not just any hero—and not just any hero who is out of the hands of destiny, but the king of heroes! Destiny is my servant and not even the greatest pantheon would know the future should I say so! I am the one dragons fear—Dovahkiin—Dragonborn!"

As an afterthought, you added, "I suppose since Dragonborn are supposed to be the son of Akatosh, and I also have the soul of a dragon, you could say I am two-thirds divine."

The redhead laughed so hard, she rolled off of the skull throne again.

The mage girl looked down at her companion, and then looked back up at you. Her eyes widened and she looked down at her friend frantically. Then she turned back to you with something like fear in her eyes, but that can't be right. She is probably in awe of your majesty. Yes, she is probably stunned by your manliness. She stuttered, "I… er… I…" Her eyes darted away, to her friend, then to the scenery behind you. She seemed to be looking anywhere except up at your eyes. It is so fortunate for her that she already knew who her better was!

"HAHAHAHA!" The redhead laughed louder.

You blinked.

You blinked again.

Has your manliness caused the redhead to go insane? You hoped not. Lydia was the only insane, harem girl you wanted or needed. One is enough! Why is it that Lydia would always run in front of your spells when she was just a moment away from death? Why is it that Lydia would always block your way when you are trying to enter a crypt? Why is it that she never acknowledges that she is your harem girl? Why is it that when you are in Breezehome, she keeps sitting down and then standing up without stop? And why is it that when you dismissed her after ending the conflict in Skyrim, she disappeared for a month? She had all of your potions, Talos damn it!

You quickly stopped this inner tirade and focused on the matter at hand, "I am Gilgamesh, Archmage of the College, Whisperer of Sithis, and Lord of Skyrim!" You posed heroically.

The mage girl looked up at you shyly, while ignoring her friend, and said with a clumsy bow, "I am Erika Amell, milord. My companion and I are Grey Wardens, and we thank you for saving our lives earlier. She is Shepard Cousland and—"

"Call me Shep," the redhead interjected as she climbed up the hill of bones again. She reached up and wiped away her tears of mirth—it is so good that she was only being incredibly delighted to meet you. "And don't worry," she said loudly, "It's okay if you're an abomination, I won't judge ya. An abomination who saves my life is a good abomination."

Erika pouted, "I told you already, there's no such thing as a—"

You thought it was best to finish your proclamation before they started arguing like a couple again. "Very well, I acknowledge you both. Now you may feel gratitude for being accepted into my harem and kiss my hand." It has been such a good day. You woke without a drop of the Tainted blood on you, and you have two nubile, willing girls too. Now all you have to do is leave this Tainted place, and the day would be complete. With that in mind, you held out a hand to be kissed—elegantly of course.

Shep rolled down the hill of bones again, laughing even harder.

It took a while for the pleasantries to be out of the way, after Shep stopped laughing at you and pointing at your face and clutching her stomach from laughing too hard. The girls both admitted that they were confused that no one remained from the battle to pick them up or anything. The war camp was stripped of tents and inhabitants however, so you assumed they had left.

This assumption left both girls uneasy, because they think the battle last night was only the initial wave of darkspawn. Shep added that she overheard there were supposed to be Orlesian reinforcements, but for some reason, they were never allowed into Ferelden. They also admitted that by sleeping near you, they had a surprisingly good night of sleep. Apparently they were supposed to have nightmares about an Archdemon.

Both were rather clueless about what to do, because being indoctrinated into the Grey Warden order means that they gave up their past lives. It also means that there are many, many things they were supposed to learn from senior wardens… who all left.

So while you conversed, you asked what they planned to do (though you knew they were in your harem no matter what). Erika seemed to be rather eager to follow you. With that inquisitive spark in her eye not yet extinguished by her initial fear of you, she was looking at you with something akin to hunger. You felt hungry when you looked at her, but then you realized that that was just the psychic senses you inherited from the spirits you ate. She had perked up the moment you mentioned you were an Archmage earlier, even though she tried to hide it. It seems like she is very eager to learn.

Shep, on the other hand, was reluctant. Despite saying that she trusted you after you saved her life and destroyed an entire army (though not the only army apparently) of darkspawn, she seemed to not trust you. Why is she always looking away when you try to look into her eyes? You can't get a good feel of her emotions either; they seem to be always in turmoil. She keeps blushing when you reach for it and backing away… how rude and annoying! Though a king must put up with all sorts of behaviors, you felt this was rather late in the relationship for her to act uninterested.

As you began packing up and getting ready to get away from this Tainted land, you wondered why the voices in your head kept insisting that you were a king. This whole affair made you feel rather silly; you didn't even have any subjects, how can you be king? Even if you wanted to be emperor, you'd have to take over Tamriel first!

Ah… but where to go now? The girls are willing to follow you for now. You seemed to have a lot on your mind, spells to create, items to enchant, magics to learn… but all of that can only be done if you had a proper laboratory, or at least a simple mage's study! So where to go?

[ ] North to Lothering  
[ ] North East to Brecilian Forest  
[ ] East to Gwaren  
[ ] West to Honnleath  
[ ] North West to Redcliff

[X] Honnleath

Erika frowned. She seemed puzzled, but Shep responded immediately, "Honnleath? Why would you want to go to a tiny, out of the way place like… ooh! You want to be in the middle of nowhere, I see!" She slung an arm around Erika and stage-whispered sarcastically, "I see your _evil abomination's_ take-over-the-world plan now! He's going to go somewhere no one is and slaughter… nothing? Maybe he'll ravish us, like he did last night. Maker, you were _loud!_"

Erika blushed and grumbled in the same breathe and pushed Shep off of her. Then she stomped ahead. After a moment of the two of you staring after her, Erika turned around with an irritated expression, "Well? If you want to go to Honnleath, then let's go! It's impossible to go directly west with all the mountains and forests, we have to get on the Imperial Highway."

"Wow, and here I thought I was the spoiled princess," Shep giggled. She looked sideways at you for half a second. The moment you gave a hint that you noticed her glance, she turned away blushing too. Without a word to you, she ran ahead.

"H-hey! Wait up," you ran after them. They completely forgot to carry your things for you! And… waitamoment! Did Shep pickpocket one of your sweet rolls?! You ran after the two. Hm, their behinds look rather shapely from the way they ran too.

After a whole day of walking north on the Imperial Highway, you met a pair of short people dwarves who looked like they could have had a better day. One of them was a bearded, older dwarf while the other was an autistic younger one. They seemed to be merchants, with that large wagon they were hauling around. But you felt pity for them.

Their wagon had broken down.

And they were being held up by bandits.

Oh, and did you mention that the younger dwarf looked retarded?

There were eight of these bandits. One of them was wearing the colors of the men who were at Ostagar, while another was wearing the armor of a templar. He didn't have the distinct, tasty Lyrium-smell of a templar however.

"Well, well, well," the fake-templar drawled when he saw your small group approach. You decided to call him a faker in your head. He seemed to be focused on your companions and not you, since they were running ahead of you, "What have we here? Two young treats! Why, with the King's Army passing by, we haven't had a good hunting in a while." He walked up to Shep, "And look at her, she thinks she can fight—"

Whatever else the man was going to say was quickly cut off by a single punch from Shep. It didn't knock him out, but he keeled over and clutched his bleeding nose, "Aah! Ow, shit!"

Shep did not stop, moving in a single motion to knee him in the face before kicking him hard enough in the groin area that you could hear something break.

"I don't think I can fight," Shep growled, "I know I can. What about you seven, you think you can take us?"

"Oh, you are dead," the fake-King's-Army bandit yelled. He stood up and hefted up a large, two handed battle hammer. You…

[ ] …Intimidate them into submission and question them.  
[ ] …Beat them all up, but don't kill them. Take their stuff and leave them naked! Reverse-bandit! Question them.  
[ ] …Kill them all except one, and then question him.  
[ ] …Run away with the girls.  
[ ] …Write-in (What do you want to ask them? what to do with them after?)

[X] Beat 'em Up!

Before the second faker finished his sentence, a bolt of Fade energy made into arcane shot out of Erika's staff and whipped around to smash upwards against the chin of the closest bandit. He was flung back right away.

Seeing them go about it, Shep dropped low and drew her weapons. She parried the first incoming blow before nicking her opponent's throat, which was exposed between his plate mail and his helmet. Then she used the momentum of the strike to spin around and kick the man away into the bandit right behind him.

With only five remaining, you didn't really want to let them die. That would be a loss of information, which is valuable no matter how little there is.

Just as Erika raised her staff to cause another bandit to be covered in frost, you crossed your arms and growled. It was something you developed: a skill of casting conjuration spells while your hands were hidden. In a single moment, several conjured swords appeared in the air. With a single direction of your telekinesis, which has grown only more powerful since the previous night, you launched each blade at the feet of the bandits. It wasn't a perfect spell, and with so many targets you missed almost all of them. But you only missed by a few centimeters; each sword was buried into the bricks just in front of each bandit's feet.

Everyone paused, even the girls, to stare at you for a second. Then Shep spun around and threw sand in the eyes of the nearest bandit.

"Oh, come on, you girls are going to kill them," you groaned. Then you opted for the more practical and less showy route: using telekinesis to cause each bandit to knock themselves out. One by one, they found themselves unable to control their bodies as their fists clenched and punched themselves into unconsciousness.

With the first target, you used the same amount of force as when you used the telekinesis on the sword, causing his head to fly off. Oops. The second one knocked himself easily enough, though his face is purple now.

"Isn't that the point?" Shep asked mischievously in reply to your earlier question.

You rolled your eyes, "No, not until I ask some questions."

It was as if the fake-army man saw you for the first time, because he instantly looked like he was about to jump out of his skin. "Y-y-you! T-t-the apostate! Oh damn! Oh damn!"

One of the other bandits turned, puzzled, "Oi, what're you on about?"

"Y-you weren't there!" He cried as he pointed at you with a shaking finger, "H-he's the one who kill 'em all!"

"Wha—?"

All the bandits knocked themselves out except for the faker. From the way he was reaction, you guessed that he wasn't a faker after all. "So you know who I am," you said calmly.

"Yes! Yes, please, I…"

"You know what I can do," you said again.

"Yes, please, I… I can…" He stuttered.

"Shut up unless I'm asking you something, mongrel," you commanded, somewhat annoyed by the groveling man.

The bandit's eyes grew wide with fear. He nodded rapidly until Erika walked passed you, with a look of suspicion on her face. She cleared her throat and said to the man, "You see how easily we defeated your group, right?"

She didn't seem to mind stepping in that dead man's pool of blood either.

The bandit almost cried, but he stopped. "Ye-yeah, er, ma'am!"

"Do you know what Grey Wardens are? My impulsive companion," she pointed to Shep, who was busy shifting through the bandit's pockets for loot, "are Grey Wardens."

"O-oh, shit!" The man muttered. You noticed that there was something leaking from the pants of his armor. It has a strong smell of urine even from where you stood.

"Good," Erika nodded, "Now can you tell me what happened to the army that passed this way?"

"I… I ain't know anything about an army," the bandit whined.

Shep took this as her cue, and kicked the back of his knees twice and once on his stomach. He folded onto the ground like a stack of cards. She grabbed his hair, raising his head, and said, "I don't trust you. Tell me the truth. Why do you have this kind of gear? Why are you here? Where is Cailan's army?"

"Y-you haven't heard?" The man coughed blood. Shep must have kicked him harder than you thought. "I… I'm just a deserter, I'm just a merc anyway. I ran from Ostagar the moment that monster behind yeh started calling down storms. You don't know anything, do yeh? Teyrn Loghain came this way a day ago and decreed all Grey Wardens traitors. And not a day later, King Cailan comes along saying Loghain's a traitor. The country's gone mad, civil war's sprouting everywhere…"

Erika sighed and grumbled at Shep, "I guess I owe you a silver."

"Told ya he was lying," Shep smirked before setting the guy's head down. "All you have to do is apply a little force." She broke the guy's wrist.

The bandit cried and yelled for a few moments. Interestingly enough, the dwarves were watching, but not leaving.

Erika pushed Shep aside and patted the bandit on the shoulder. With a wave of her hands, white light gathered around the bandit's wrist and it healed awkwardly, bent in a strange angle. Erika ran a hand through her hair before saying, "Look, how about you start telling me the truth, and we'll all get out of this in one piece? Well, most of us, anyway." She looked at the dead men on the floor for a moment before turning her attention back to the scared bandit, "I can even make sure our scary apostate doesn't kill you and eat your soul."

"…He can do that?!" The bandit whispered.

Erika's shoulders slumped just a little, unnoticed by everyone else. But you noted that she really wanted to sigh just then. Instead, she said, "Why are you here? How come the local guards aren't stopping you?"

"Stopping me? With what army?" The bandit whined, "Everyone's been levied by the baron! There's only some old codgers and some templars left. But they're all too busy with their shit to pay attention to the roads. King Cailan's army just marched to Redcliff. They're levying more people, but the soldiers were moving too fast to care about a few men lazing on the side of the road. But… but they say things, yeh know? Like, horrible things. Things like 'darkspawn are coming', 'that was just a vanguard', or even 'this is a real Blight'!"

You wondered, "Are there any other bandits in the area?"

"N-no, sera!" The bandit shook his head vigorously, "My boys keep everyone around Lothering in line. Can't say anything about anywhere passed that though."

"Hm," you nodded.

Shep rolled her eyes at you before adding, "What about darkspawn?"

"I don't know anything about that, but there's been some refugees coming up from the South…"

"Oh," you interrupted again, "What about mead? Where can I get good mead?"

The bandit blinked at you, "Mead? What's that?"

You froze.

…

Meanwhile, Erika sighed, "Have you heard of any other Grey Wardens coming this way?"

"N-no, but if there were any, they must've gone with King Cailan to Redcliff," he replied like a scared child.

"Then we should probably go that way," Shep decided.

Erika frowned, "No, we're Grey Wardens, remember? We're not supposed to get into these political conflicts. We can't. And you're not a Cousland anymore, not really."

"You…!"

"You're one of us, Shep."

"…Of course…"

They turned to the bandits, and Erika said, "I don't think we need them anymore. We should probably do away with them."

"Wha-what?!" The bandit cried, "b-but I answered your questions! Truthfully! Why are you… please! Please have mercy!"

"Ya know," Shep drawled, "I noticed all the bloodstains around this place. I'm guessin' you never gave mercy to those who you robbed, did ya?"

"I, but I need—" Before the bandit could make an excuse, Shep interrupted him like a renegade and sliced his head off. Then she made short work of the rest of them. She's kind of icky now though, being covered in a splatter of blood. It kind of smells, and not in a good way—you're no vampire.

There was nothing of use found on these bandits, only a few useless coins. Shep quickly snatched up them up, saying that she needed them for maintenance reasons or something.

It was then that the dwarves approached you.

The younger, blond one clapped his hands when he saw you, but said nothing. He just stared up at you, as if you were something new and wondrous.

The older, brown-haired one said in a sly, savvy voice of a true merchant, "My word! That was some very fancy work. You and your friends are something deadly."

"Thank you," Shep nodded, "And you are?"

"Ah, where are my manners! My name is Bodahn Feddic, and this is my son Sandal. We're traveling merchants, when this happened! Got to flee the south, and all… that…" He tried to sound jovial, but it was hard when the person he was talking to was basically red with the gore of her enemies. "A-anyway, it's good that you and your friends are on the road. Who knows what could have happened. Say, what would you say to traveling together? I mean, it's more like to two of us follow you around, but there's safety in numbers. We can offer our services as a trader, but also other useful things too." He seemed desperate.

Shep shrugged at Erika, who shrugged back. They turned to you for a decision.

[ ] Let them come with you, but they better not hold you back.  
[ ] Tell them to leave, you don't want to see short people.  
[ ] Kill them and take their things. They have to have valuables.  
[ ] Ignore them and keep walking.  
[ ] NO MEAD?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOO!

Whatever you choose, you should set the pace of this journey. You…

[ ] …want to move quickly and arrive without stop.  
[ ] …want to move at a moderate pace and converse with some of your followers.  
[ ] …want to move at a reduced pace, and perhaps learn things from some of your followers.  
[ ] …want to move slowly and teach things to some of your followers. Maybe even take a stop or two.  
[ ] NO MEAD?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOO!

[X] Mead production, ho!

"This world has no mead!? This is an _affront _which must be rectified! I will not drink whatever swill they serve in this forsaken land," you roared with rage.

You casually summoned a spectral blade and impaled the unlucky bandit who informed you of the absolute lack of the nectar of the gods. Just to be sure. Oh wait, you hate the gods. Well, most of them. No matter, it is still the nectar of the gods!

Shep and Erika stared at you, not saying a word. It's strange how quickly humans adapt to their new surroundings… but you had a strange feeling that they thought you were crazy. But that's crazy!

You gesture grandly at the merchant, "Come then, Dwarven merchant. I order you to lead me to the best brewer you have ever met!"

It might have been the blood dripping on your cheeks from your overenthusiastic impalement of the bandits, but the dwarf paused for a moment before nodding shakily, "Of course, though, could you help me find my oxen? They ran off when the bandits broke my wagon, you see…"

Shep and Erika both left to do this before you got a word it. As it turns out, having telekinesis helps along the fixing of the wagon greatly. As soon as the work was done, the girls were back with the oxen. They were stocky, muscled things, made for slow but consistent travel. This is good, since you have decided for the group to move at a reduced pace so that you could perhaps learn things from you companions.

Though your pace was not quick by any means, your group was quick enough to evade the King's Army and most of the scouts on the road. In fact, it was rather dull, so you spent time socializing and exchanging knowledge with your companions.

You learned most from **Erika Amell**, who told you of the conditions that mages suffered in Thedas. Most of what she said matched what you learned from the memories, but there were many holes that she knowledge patched up. She also gave a detailed explanation of the Harrowing and also tried to explain what it was like to be a Grey Warden. The spirits within you had no knowledge of this, though she was too inexperienced to explain clearly what it was that the Grey Wardens do. She also was unable to witness the ritual that allowed her to gain a resistance to Darkspawn blood, so she was little help to you there. You learned that she was a bit of a bookworm; she learned many combat spells secretly by sneaking around her Circle Tower's upper levels. Though she had some ability in manipulating the Fade, she had very few combat spells that she truly mastered. Some of her spells did not interest you, like [Arcane Bolt], [Flame Blast], and [Winter's Grasp]. However, for the sake of experimentation, you tried each spell out a few times. They were simple enough—directing the Fade energy to form a single element—that with your proficiency in manipulation of Aetherius Magicka, it only took you a few attempts to master.

To your disappointment, spells powered by the Fade were unable to move far from the caster. All of Erika's spells only reach 25 meters before they dissipate. Unlike spells formed with Magicka, spells made with Mana were potent… but only for a short range. You still think your spells are more potent. However, Erika had four spells that you found interesting: [Vulnerability Hex], [Affliction Hex], [Drain Life], [Weakness], and [Disorient]. You didn't really think them necessary, with your powerful Calm spells, but you had no exact equivalent spells in your own arsenal. You quickly learned these spells, during the trip, but you haven't found a way to make them extend further or become more potent. And you just don't have the work place for making something of a Nirn-equivalent to these spells.

When you talked with **Shepard**, the redhead grumbled about how she missed good food. It wasn't until the third day that she told you anything about her. In reality, her life has been a kind of a nightmare. Her family has been brutally murdered by a close family friend, she was forcibly enlisted into the Grey Warden order, and she lost everything, even her dog. The reason why she wanted to go to Cailan's army was because of the man who made her life a nightmare: Arl Rendon Howe. Apparently Cailan had promised her revenge on this count, but with his army scattered and Howe's army intact, she would probably never get the opportunity. At this point, Howe was simply too valuable to Ferelden, and she was just a penniless girl. She knew how politics worked. If Cailan had to choose between her and Howe, he would probably choose Howe. It wasn't that she thought badly of Cailan, but because it was the choice the king would have to make for the sake of the country.

As it turns out, Shepard used to be part of one of the most powerful families of Ferelden. The Cousland family had great influence and was one of the most powerful counties of the kingdom. She was not really a warrior, but more of a… rogue, for a lack of a better word. She uses leather armors and quick action to get things done, and she wasn't above getting dirty to do it. However, you couldn't learn much from her. She seems still traumatized by the deaths of her loved ones. You were somewhat successful in getting her to open up those feelings to you, so it wasn't a total loss.

**Bodahn Feddic** was an opportunist, from what you learned. As it turns out, he didn't know any brewers, or so he says. He was framed by some nobles in his home city of Orzammar. He was also someone who made his fortune looting the dead. The merchandise he has in his cart was mostly looted from families who left in a hurry to survive the coming hordes. Cailan had dispatched a few groups of soldiers to every part of his realm in order to notify them and to levy more troops, which caused many cautious families to leave their homes immediately. Apparently Cailan was being advised by a dark-skinned Grey Warden, which compounded with the horrific night he suffered, caused him to become more pragmatic. Bodahn conversed with you a little, and you also learned a little about bargaining.

Bodahn's son turned out to be adopted. He is a skilled enchanter, using purified Lyrium to make delicate lines and runes. It was a difficult job, and supposedly impossible for humans, who had a connection to the Fade. You knew that there were other ways to enchant items with Lyrium, with the solid evidence in your pack: your [Enchanter's Staff]. It was a staff formed and enchanted with many rituals. You think that if you had a proper laboratory, you could perhaps start studying this and **Sandal**'s enchanting ability. However, he is also a savant, so he is unable to teach you anything of his craft directly.

You traveled three weeks on the Imperial Highway before branching off into smaller dirt roads to go south. Honnleath is a small village, with barely any more than a dozen houses. There were a few farms you passed along the way, but they were strangely lacking in occupants.

When you arrived, you noticed that everything was… calm. There were a few villagers wandering around, but none of them seem to pay much attention to your group other than with some curiosity. They all seemed to just mind their own business.

As you walked into the town square, you saw an erect statue, covered in bird poop. You also felt many malevolent spirits trapped at your feet.

Shep looked up at you with annoyance. She wanted to say that she said this _month-long_ trip was all a waste, you could see it. The village looked incredibly boring, what could there be here of use?

[ ] Write-in.

[X] There are demons afoot.

You turned to your girls and said bluntly, "There are demons here. We're going to go and kill them, then use their souls to power my glow-in-the-dark sword."

"You mean your peni—hey!" Shep cried when Erika 'accidentally' stamped one end of her staff against Shep's foot. She protested indignantly, "It's a valid question! He doesn't even have a sword!" Then she turned to you, "Speaking of swords, why didn't you just take one from the darkspawn? Is it because they have curved swords? Cuuuuurved swooooords?"

Erika rolled her eyes at Shep. She didn't want to deal with this, so she just looked to you for direction. As a mage of the Circle, she was probably conditioned to follow authority, rather than be rebellious like Shepard.

You decided not to reply to this. Instead you followed your senses (and the power of the [Clairvoyance] spell), to a cottage in the village. You felt 14 lesser demons down beneath the house, who were inconsequential. But there were also two stronger demons. Well, they weren't much stronger especially compared to maybe some of the ones you ate, but they were at least above the fifty percentile mark in the potency of their power.

The building these spirits resided under was perhaps the largest in the village, so it was possible that it housed the demons all within its cellar. You thought perhaps that since humans were living here peacefully enough, they probably didn't know of the demonic presence. You could feel the strength of the Fade here. There were some people manipulating it, not as spirits but as mages, and not in a discrete manner either.

There wasn't much to do, other than to tell the pair of dwarves to wait around while you went up to the cottage. The dwarves pulled up their wagon outside and waited patiently.

After several knocks on the door, a frazzled young man opened the door. The moment you saw him, you knew he was a mage. He seemed annoyed when he saw you, "Well, what do you want? Are you with the Circle? Mom doesn't care for your false reassurances, so don't think you can bully us."

"No, no," you waved him off. This man seems rather rude! "I'm here about your little demon infestation."

"…Demon infestation?" The man frowned, "What are you talking about?"

He seems to be hiding something, or not telling the truth. You still plan to reap the spirits like wheat but how will you deal with this man?

[ ] Push him aside and storm in, looking for the demons.  
[ ] Knock the guy out and then take a look around.  
[ ] Kill him and loot the cottage. Then it's demon hunting time.  
[ ] Write-in.

[X] The Most Charming Man in Town

"And here is why Charm spells are so useful," you mutter with a wave of your hands. A moment later, the man guided you and the girls into the cottage, with very dazed expression and glassy eyes.

Not a moment later, a little girl walked up to the man and asked, "Daddy?"

The man didn't reply, too docile under the effects of Calm.

"Daddy, are you alright?" The girl kept tugging on the man's shirt, but to little avail. The effect will wear off in an hour or so, so it's not like this mattered much.

"It's a good thing I didn't kill the guy," you mutter again.

"What was that?" Erika asked curiously.

You spun around, "Er, nothing?"

"No," Erika crossed her arms with a suspicious look on her face, "That wasn't nothing from what I stood. Was that blood magic? Only blood magic can affect the mind… and I heard only demons or really powerful apostates could do something like that!"

"Oi, Eri, you're overacting again," Shep hooted a laugh as she walked past the mage girl without looking at her. She patted the mage girl's head goadingly and looked around the rooms. "It's nothing new."

"No… no!" Erika whined, "It's not! It's… that's dangerous! That's really, really dangerous! That's like… even demons need receptive targets to mind control! That man was a mage _**and**_ he wanted to fight! That's not normal… that's…"

Shep rolled her eyes at you before hopping over beside Erika, who was ranting and going into her own little world. Then Shep slapped her in the buttocks, "Calm down, poppet. Didn't you hear? There's _demons _here."

Snapped out of her rant, Erika blinked a few times before nodding meekly. "R-Right, sorry about that…"

"There's nothing to be apologizing for, little mage girl. Clearly, you're just too inexperienced!" You also patted her head like Shep did and then ruffled it a little. The girl looked somewhat indignant, but instead of retorting, she just crossed her arms and pouted. You continued on like nothing happened, "Anyway, there's no way down there from here. We'll need to go through the cellar door, outside. Say, good man, what's your name?"

The man turned to you blankly and replied monotonously, "Matthias."

"And I'm Amalia!" The little girl added cutely. You ignored her.

"Right, Matthias, do you have the keys to the cellar?" You made the man give you the keys. Then you told him to go away.

"…Bloodmagic…" Erika grumbled.

Shep slapped Erika's behind again and the mage girl shutted up, blushing all the while looking between you and Shep.

You opened the cellar and found several rooms beneath. They were dry areas and very clean… almost magically so. Most of these rooms were storage rooms, but after walking through several rooms, you realized that the basement could be large enough to be a granary for a whole town.

Upon closer inspection, there was a jar of Lyrium and many boxes of herbs. There were also a few ingots of silverite and a sack of white scrap ironwood. There were also several stashes of Lyrium powder… this whole place looked more and more like the secret laboratory of a senior mage. You noticed that there were several lines of Lyrium on the ground. You could tell it was in the shape of a runic barrier, which was currently deactivated. Once activated, it could probably last a few weeks, but it only protects the last few rooms of the cellar. It was very crude.

Upon entering the last room with a confident stride, you saw a crude laboratory room that was sealed by some kind of potent Fade magic. There was a pink barrier of energy around it and there was a kitten inside. It was being sealed by some kind of rune that you realized needed someone outside of the barrier to open. And from what you know, it is a puzzle rune too complex for even an adept Fade wielder to craft. Whoever made it must have studied magic of the Fade for decades.

Upon seeing you entire, the kitten laughed, "Humans! Yes, my freedom has come!"

"A talking cat," Shep muttered, "Now I've seen everything." She fingered the hilts of her weapons gingerly, like a snake coiled and ready to strike.

[ ] Write-in.

[X] The Voice of XenonPrime has Spoken.

You couldn't help but snort, "That's nothing, Shepard—" "My name is Shep!" "—where I come from, all cats talk, but they never speak the true."

You conveniently ignore Erika, who somewhat jokingly added, "Demonland." Instead, you waved for both of the girls to look around.

"Ahem," you cleared your throat and stepped up to the Kitten. "Demon! For what purpose have you been sealed here? I care not whether you speak a web of lies or speak unfettered truths but the manner of your response will decide what judgment I pass over you."

You felt a slight prodding on the back of your brain. It wasn't very subtle, though you are more sensitive than most people you'd know after that great feast that other night. It felt like if you had a third ear inside your brains and someone had found a way to give you an invisible wet willy. Yuck.

It is annoying, and you quickly bat the little metaphorical wet pinky away. You did this on instinct, though because you weren't sure what exactly you did. This warrants more study.

The Kitten recoiled, its eyes wide. For a moment looked like it was going to hiss at you, but then it calmed down. With its furry tail waving hypnotically, it responded in an adolescent girl's voice, "I didn't want to be here! I just want to go home! The traitorous mage Wilhelm tricked me into coming and then trapped me…" Seeing your expression, the Kitten quickly changed tactics, "But I didn't do it, you know? I mean, whatever happened. It wasn't me. Wilhelm, he just stopped showing up one day. It was good, peaceful, but I'm bored here! Still… it's better than him prodding and prickling me every day. Prickling, tickling, cutting my skin, stretching my muscles, and extracting my limbs… Even a Fade creature can be injured."

You turned to the girls.

Shep was twirling around a staff that you dubbed [Wilhelm's Magus Staff]. It was a sturdy thing made from silverite. There were four long, thin edges along the head of the staff, one pointing to each direction. You didn't sense a soul powering it, but the Fade pulsed around the staff slightly. It seemed to be resistant to your senses. Shep was also holding a bag of coins and shiny, blue-green stone with a pattern like a turtle's shell.

"What?" Shep asked when you crossed your arms and stared at her, "It's shiny!"

"I… I don't even know where to begin with what's wrong with that, Shep. There's a demon just over there, have some caution for once," Erika sighed before coming to you. "It's like you have a death wish or something."

Shep harrumphed and turned away, mumbling, "Well, maybe I do."

The mage girl walked up to you with a thin note book and a letter. She said, "This is all the documents in this lab. I think someone already came here and took most of the important notes. Even these were hidden pretty well, but the mage Wilhelm used standard Circle magic to hide it, so even I could find this. Whoever came must have been a templar or something who didn't know…"

You read the items

The letter was simple:

Madam,

I can assure you that the Circle of Magi is not a sacrilegious institution and that, indeed, we operate under the supervision of the Chantry. It would make our investigation of your husband's death much easier if you would simply co-operate with us. I am disappointed to hear that you sold the golem's activation rod-I understand both it and your husband were of invaluable aid to King Maric during the war against Orlais. Without the rod, we cannot discern whether Wilhelm's golem was responsible for his murder. The golem will simply have to remain where it is unless the villagers can find a means to destroy it. Our condolences to you and your son for your loss. I imagine it is of little consolation to you, but your husband is much admired here and will be missed.

Maker keep you.

_-First Enchanter Arlen_

The note book was mostly damaged. What little that remained was not completely filled. It read:

13 Pluitanis: The interrogation of the demon is going well, and is rather fascinating-provided that what it is saying is true. I have sent all my research so far to First Enchanter Arden, and while he is concerned about my safety he does not think there is a reason to stop just yet. All I hope is that the templars do not discover what I am doing. How will we ever find another way to deal with demonic possession if the Chantry does not let us research it?

20 Eluviesta: Young Matthias nearly wandered down here again today, and this time I forgot to leave the barrier up. I believe I will key the defenses to ignore anyone of my blood. I would rather have the boy stumble into the laboratory than have him killed by my forgetfulness. Poor lad, all he wants is to know why his father spends so much time beneath the tower. I will spend more time with him soon, I swear it.

28 Eluviesta: Shale is acting strangely. I wonder if I should discontinue my experiments upon it? I am so near a breakthrough, I am certain! Ahhh, perhaps it is best if I focus on the demon.

2 Matrinalis: The demon almost managed to get away again. Tricky. I shall have to be more careful. Young Eamon sent a letter asking me to return to Redcliffe. I shall have to consider it. Soon.

11 Matrinalis: Could it be? What an intriguing discovery, especially considering that the demon was attempting to keep me from it at all costs. Or did it lead me to that information by seeming to deny it from me? I must discover the truth.

19 Umbralia: I think it is time to dismiss this demon. It is too dangerous for me to continue holding it, and I cannot discount the possibility that it is having some influence over the golem. Or is it my experiments? I will try to deactivate Shale for the time being and then deal with the demon once and for all. Let it end here.

_-From the journal of Enchanter Wilhelm Sulzbacher._

There were no newer entries. It looked like a really old note book, perhaps decades.

"You are awfully strong, aren't you?" The Kitten asked rhetorically, interrupting your reading. "I can sense your power even from here. I can taste it… drawing me… ah, ah, ah, but I have fallen for this trick once, and ended up here for too long. You must be a senior enchanter… or are you the new First Enchanter?"

Shep interrupted the demonic Kitten's seductive words by saying, "Hey, Gil, you wanted a drink right? I found a barrel of glowing dark ale. You want? It's probably magic stuff." The Kitten's eyes glowed brightly for a moment when she lost your attention to the ale, but it said nothing.

Behind you, Erika muttered so quietly that only you could hear her say, "…You really have a death wish. What happened the last time this guy drank Lyrium? And that was without alcohol mixed in there…"

The Kitten tried to regain your attention, "Please, powerful mage. I didn't want to come to the Materium. I just want to return to the Fade. Release me, mortal and let me leave this place forever." It hesitated before adding, "I am not even truly a demon. I am just a kitty, really."

[ ] Write-in.

[X] Kill, Kill, Kill.

"I'm the Archmage, actually," you replied to the Kitten. Before it could inquire what that meant however, you shot a bolt of lightning, which disintegrated it into hot ash. There was a slight psychic backlash, which knocked Shep on her ass.

"Ow," she muttered, "I was more of a dog person anyway."

The moment the cat disappeared, the bindings on the demons within this room broke. Some streamed in from the other room. You made short work of all of them, seeing as they were too mindless to even speak to you.

Within moments, lightning flooded the room, destroying all of the ash demons into fine ash. There was a lieutenant class demon of hunger, but it was too weak to resist your blows. It must have been starved in this laboratory for years from the looks of it.

You nodded to the girls, who watched you in awe, "I don't like being manipulated. Now, about that booze…"

There was a bang.

It was another interruption.

This day was full of them. You turned to see the two dwarves attempting to bar the way down into the cellar with something akin to fear on their faces. Bodahn yelled, "D-da-dah-darkspawn! Here!"

"I thought you Grey Wardens are supposed to be able to sense them," you growled, interrupted from being able to enjoy a foamy mug of ale.

Shep shrugged, "Eh, ever since I met you, my senses have been going crazy. I didn't sense anything."

You went up and out of the cellar just in time to see Matthias and his daughter getting killed and then dragged away by darkspawn. There were about maybe half a century of darkspawn up there, being led by three spell casting Genlocks—even though they were supposed to be derived from dwarves and unable to enter the Fade.

In your irritation, you vaporize them all in a wave of cleansing fire. But that left half of the village burning. Good thing the villagers were already dead, or else some of those voices in your head will start complaining again. There were some who survived, but they already ran away and were probably being dragged down into the ground by nearby darkspawn. You…

[ ] Go down, activate the defenses and get drunk.  
[ ] Investigate and see there are more incoming. Try to lay some defenses in the area either way.  
[ ] Get everyone and leave this place. There should be safer places to make a laboratory, like the Circle.  
[ ] Grab the darkspawn bodies, drag them down, dissect and study them. Make a lab here.  
[ ] Write-in.

[X] Stay. Invest in more dakka.

With only one soul, you can only bind one daedra to your will. A Flame Atronach appears beside you and you set it off to make a moat of molten earth around the village. There were no Atronach that could make an earthen barricade that would stop darkspawn anyway but with a two or three meter wide moat surrounding the outskirts of the village, you could begin making other works.

You would need to set up a ritual circle if you want to summon more Atronach, but that would take at least a day.

You then levitated yourself up on top of the cottage. Along the outside of the moat that was under construction by the Flame Atronach, you placed a thick layer of runes as an additional perimeter. This took some time, as you decided on making it a ten-rune thick layer. In fact, your Flame Atronach finished before you and was picking off the few darkspawn that did approach in the distance by sniping with firebolts. The moat was 3 meters wide and 6 meters deep, though you weren't sure how the molten earth was being maintained other than "magic". You could tell that by maintaining this flowing lava that circled around the village, your Flame Atronach was greatly weakened… you could barely see the glow of its body anymore.

There weren't many darkspawn from what you could see under [Detect Life], and you guess that it was probably the stragglers from the vanguard that attacked the village while you were below in the cellar.

You picked the rest of the darkspawn off and created a Frost Atronach and set it to make an earthen wall around the village, just inside the moat.

You levitated yourself down and went to the entrance of the cellar, where your party awaited. You turned to Bodahn and said, "You said your son could enchant things? Could he enchant the walls of the cellar from diggers?"

"The whole cellar?" Bodahn's eyes widened in surprise, "That's going to take days, ser. Not to mention, my son here needs a lot of Lyrium to even do that."

"That's silly, Gil," Shep piped in, "You know, they could just tunnel through under that lava moat you got there and get into the village anyway."

You smirked, "I'd like to see them try and get melted for it."

"All this excitement is a bit much for me," Bodahn said nervously while wiping away sweat on his forehead. "My boy and I aren't used to this at all, but this melted earth you have there reminds me a little of home, isn't that right, my boy?"

"Enchantment!"

"Ha, ha! That's right," Bodahn looked around nervously. "Just like home, a regular dwarf fortress."

There weren't many spells that you knew were used for strengthening walls. This was never really necessary for you, since you were usually the one to storm the walls rather than the one to reinforce the walls. However, after crawling through many dungeons, you had learned how to craft an automated sentry, like those that you found in many dungeons.

The [Soul Gem Sentry] constructs were permanent enough, using a soul gem as a power source. The problem was you only had one actual soul gem and these sentries attack anything with a soul that moved within its line of 'vision'. The most powerful version of this type of sentry was the one that shot bolts of lightning, which hit almost instantly. The other type was one that shot balls of fire. They could be modified to attack a wider range, but with a very limited distance. This other type is a conic sentry, which shot a stream of constant fire or lightning, but only hitting everything within around 25 meters. However, you have yet to explore the idea of making these sentries cast the [Dragonhide] spell.

You find 7 gem stones with the right aptitude and frequency to store souls and a spell setting within the cellar, three of which happen to be in Shep's pockets. She whistles innocently when you ask about them and after you stared at her for a few moments, she grumbles something about stealing from the mages in the Ostagar camp.

You set four of them down in the cellar at key locations, each one casting [Dragonhide] on the walls. This cellar nearly impenetrable to mundane attempts of penetration and lower level spells. The gems recast [Dragonhide] every 30 seconds and consume one of your grand-class souls each.

When you came back up from the cellar, you noticed that only the cottage was left. All the other buildings have been torn down by the Frost Atronach to create a .5 meter thick and 1.5 meter tall wall of earth supported by wood and mud. There was a small opening towards the north that was not covered, which led out of the village, so the northern part was not yet covered. Your Frost Atronach had stomped out and started patrolling for foes.

There were also some explosions of giant icicles abound; some darkspawn scouts have made it passed 3 of your 10-rune layer walls. You quickly restore the runes.

You set two of your sentries to cast the [Dragonhide] spell on your walls. They were able to cover around 50% of your walls. With your last [Soul Gem Sentry], you put it atop a pedestal over the cottage to cast [Lightning Rune] spells in every direction outside of the village. Sometimes it casted these runes inside the lava moat, but you were able to have it continuously reinforce one layer of runes outside of the walls.

All of this reinforcing took the whole day. By the time night fell, you ate dinner with your companions inside the cottage. Erika had spent the whole day down in the cellar shifting through the Enchanter Wilhelm's books. She learned the spells [Frost Weapons] and [Spell Shield]. Both are spells that need constant focus and attention to maintain. Bodahn and Shep have scoured the village for anything valuable to loot, and Bodahn found a curious sword that glows with the colors of the rainbow and occasionally bursts with an illusion of glowing butterflies. It doesn't seem to be very strong, but it is very heavy. He called it the [Butterfly Sword]. It seems pretty sharp, but you aren't sure if it's even a real weapon. It looks like it could be enchanted and you saw only a sliver of Lyrium runes on its blade.

Shep found a bunch of coins and the dinner you were eating tonight: hard bread and beef stew. You were able to drink some of that dark ale, but it didn't seem to have much of an effect on you like a Lyrium potion would. Shep also found a barrel that was supposed to be filled with mead, but it turned out to be empty. In total, Shep found enough food in the village that survived the fire to last your group about two weeks if you ration it.

During dinner, you ponder on what you could attempt to enchant with a benign Fade Spirit. The first problem was catching one, because the Fade Spirits that were benign appeared far less than demons… especially spirits that had sentience. You also need to figure out what to ensoul it into once you grabbed one. You could put it into the golem-statue. Alternatively, you could try to put it into one of the human or darkspawn bodies around the village. They were all just lying around and they were starting to smell. Another idea you thought about was putting one of the dragon's souls within you into a construct. That could be potentially deadly to you and you didn't know what darkspawn Taint would do to it, but it could be potentially useful. You would need to make the construct first, however.

You also thought about making some way of instant transport. You remembered in some of the books you read back in the college that there were spells of [Mark] and [Recall], which allowed the caster to return to the place they marked instantly. You also killed a mage before called "The Caller". She had a trick that allowed her to teleport around a room, but you suspect that was due to her powerful ritual circle. There were other means of instant travel, one of which you remember involved having specific chambers… but you would need to spend a lot of time to study this further.

At this point you estimate, if you try to recreate these spells through memory and trial-and-error, you would need to use at least one week.

There are about 500 darkspawn circling your village now, but they aren't approaching. They are all outside of 200 meters away. They are in one large group and seem to be steadily gathering numbers. Your Frost Atronach couldn't move too far away from you, but any darkspawn that went closer to the village were squashed. When you levitated yourself up, you could see that they were building a catapult and some of them were digging a tunnel.

Erika seemed conflicted that night and during dinner, she asked, "Ser Gilgamesh, what is it that you are planning to do here? With no one around except darkspawn, we'll eventually get overrun, aren't we?" She seems distressed. "I mean, this is all... all too new to me…" She didn't know what to say after that, so she just stared at the floor, ashamed for some reason.

[ ] What to do about Mage Girl? (Write-in)

[ ] What is the next course of action? (Write-in)

[X] Comfort her.

"Don't worry, the darkspawn will not be able to get in," you said. "Don't you remember? I kill much more than this puny number at Ostagar."

Mentioning Ostagar to Erika was like reminding her of a traumatic incident. She did not take it well, but nodded and accepted your reasoning. She quickly excused herself from dinner and buried herself in her books.

You note that the book she was reading was upside down and offered to teach her something about magic. She accepted, but for the next few days you were too busy to give her any actual tutelage. While you worked, you answered some of her questions, but it seemed to only make her more confused as time went on. You promised to teach her better after you were done with your other tasks.

[X] Wipe them out.

You decide to rain lightning on the darkspawn in the form of your Thu'um, destroying their organization utterly. Some small pockets were prepared for you and actually deflected much of the bolts away from themselves. You estimate that maybe 50 of them survived, especially those close to the darkspawn emissaries. They were using some kind of Fade shield or barrier that redirected most of the damage into the parallel plane, which reduced the amount of damage of your storm bolts down to small and tolerable sparks.

[Dragon Shouts +1]

Before you launched another volley, they shot a missile from their catapult: an unholy ball of flaming oil. It smashed into part of the earthen walls you built, which had not been reinforced by your [Dragonskin] sentry, so the hastily built wall collapsed quickly. About 1/8 of the village wall is now destroyed.

Seeing this, you dropped two Frost Atronaches on the darkspawn emissaries and used a conjured bow to pick off the remaining darkspawn emissaries. This worked much better than purely destruction spells or elemental magic, since the darkspawn emissaries seemed to be mainly prepared to counter your spells or the elements. They could not count two daedra that were more powerful than Ogres. You made short work of them, but they were able to get another shot off and you were unable to completely deflect it with telekinesis due to its weight and momentum. It hit pretty close to where the first shot landed, but the total damage done by the fires and missiles left you with only about 75% of your walls remaining.

[Conjuration +1]

The moat and runes remained intact.

Your Frost Atronaches spent the night chasing down stray darkspawn and sealing up the hole they were digging. It took the summons the whole night, since it was basically two hundred darkspawn digging for most of a day to make that tunnel.

[X] Finish Defenses?

You repaired the walls in the morning and took some boulders from the surrounding area and cut them down to blocks using alteration magic. This took you most of the day light, while your had a Frost Atronach place them around the village and a Flame Atronach melt them together. The Flame Atronach also widened the moat and deepened it while it was free.

The wall is now mostly made of a kind of local rock, melted and hardened by fire magic. It is then supported by wood on the inside and smaller stone blocks melted in on the outside. It is 3 meters tall and 1 meter thick.

The lava moat is 7 meters deep and 4 meters wide.

[X] Work on Teleport.

You spent the next three days working on the [Mark] and [Recall] spells. It seemed simple enough; all you had to do was understand space… and as the Dragonborn spiritual son of Akatosh, you supposed you knew more about the concept of space better—instinctively—than all non-Dragonborn mortals. It took you three days to finish reinventing a crude version of this spell, by the end of which had even Sandal getting antsy. No one didn't want to stay in a village which consisted of one cottage and only themselves. (You soon found that outside of survival and darkspawn, your companions didn't have much in common with each other.)

You realized that these spells doesn't allow you to move the wagon around and had other limitations too. The dwarves seem to be unable to use the [Mark] spell, even if you enchant it into an amulet. This makes it impossible for them to use the [Recall] amulet. Another problem of this way of travel was that the [Mark] spell stores only one location on each person. That means they could only recall themselves back to one location. The easy part for you was figuring out how the teleport aspect worked, but storing multiple locations will take more time. You estimate up to some weeks. Another problem that popped up was that most mortal bodies couldn't handle the crude teleport spell you invented on the spot in high frequency. That is, you estimate that even you could only handle using [Recall] once a day. A final problem of this spell for you was that your version was too accurate. That is to say, if someone or something else was exactly at where you marked and you teleported there…

…well, you didn't really want to test that out yourself.

[[Crude Mark] and [Crude Recall] spells learned]

By the fourth day, you were too annoyed by the inability to make quick enchantments that you crafted an Enchantment table. It took you the whole day, but it was done. At least most of your enchantments will be quick now, though this table was not nearly as good as the one in Whiterun or the one in your office in the College.

By the end of the fourth day, you used the enchantment table you crafted to make 5 amulets of each [Mark] and [Recall] spells. Bodahn was more than happy to give you some random jewelry, though they were made of cheap bronze. You used 10 grand-class souls to enchant them. The dwarves would be unable to use them, so you kept 2 sets for yourself, at least until you found a way around that dwarven resistance. Well, at least you were able to fit both spells into one amulet.

The amulets have not [Mark] spelled any location yet.

On the morning of the fifth day, you looked around the surroundings of the village using [Detect Life] while asking about things from Shep. As it turned out, darkspawn were actively avoiding your village, at least for now. You don't know if it is because they learned you weren't to be messed with or if they were just biding their time. Either way, even small forest critters were starting to avoid the village.

Well, you were sick of eating rune-fried squirrel anyway.

Erika greeted you that morning looking grumpier than before. She seemed to be getting grumpier by the day, but she didn't say anything about it to you. She muttered something about clearing through all the spells in the basement, but she still didn't understand what you were trying to teach her. You realized that you were teaching her about how to use Magicka without teaching her how to draw on Magicka. Though, the very task of drawing on Magicka would need her to adapt to a new system. You had to ponder on how to best teach her this. Erika has learned all of the spells in the Entropy school. She is very deadly now.

Shep, on the other hand, was getting more bored each day. You noticed that she was practicing with her knives while staring at you these days. Might need to find something to keep her occupied or start moving around again.

Bodahn also express his concerns to you. He wanted to leave, though at this point he was still too afraid of the darkspawn outside to leave with only Sandal.

[X] [Mark] Honnleath.

You use one amulet to [Mark] Honnleath. It doesn't even look like a small village anymore and you ponder on renaming the place.

You also teach the girls what the amulets do. They didn't seem to believe you, so you demonstrated it by teleporting down to the basement cellar, where you used the [Mark] spell of the amulet. Both were in awe. After some teaching, both marked the Honnleath Cellar too.

[X] Double Stamina for Everynyan!

You bargain for some more necklaces from Bodahn, but he didn't seem to want to give up what he had left. After a few works—"Give them to me, Bodahn"—you had four silverite neck amulets, one iron amulet, and one gold necklace. Seeing as the others didn't really need the best of the best, you decided to use common-class souls on their enchantments. With the double enchantment and your skill in the craft, each of the necklaces end up giving around 140% stamina regeneration. The one you made for yourself gives almost 300%. You keep the gold one, for your ego's sake.

After giving these necklaces to each of your followers, Bodahn found himself thanking you. He says he feels twenty years younger with this on.

Shep is doing cartwheels behind you.

[X] Explain to Erika what you're trying to teach her, that you're trying to help her use a fundamentally different magic system. Explain to her the concept behind Magicka, and the theory of drawing on it. Talk to her, try to get her to feel comfortable. Get her to open up to us, to trust us. Bottom line show we care.

As it turns out, one of the reasons why Erika is unable to learn how to use your brand of magic is because no one in Thedas knows how to draw on Magicka, so no one has the capacity. That is if you had the capacity to draw on 600 Magicka units at any time, Erika can only use on 0 units.

The concept of not drawing energy from her mind or the Fade, but from the sun and stars frightens her. It seems like she read some weird Qunari books about how the sun is a massive ball of burning gas in the sky. How silly.

She is learning how to do it now, but it will take her time.

After talking to her for some hours, you find out that Erika has never really socialized with people. Her only friends turned out to be a templar who chose his order over her and a blood mage who lied to her. Although, the reason why she was feeling grumpy lately was because she hasn't been getting any "nookie" as she calls it. When asked what that was, she just blushed and muttered something to soft for you to hear.

You remain confused, but after spending a night with Erika, she seems to be better. She seems almost glowing, really. In the morning, she admitted that she was slightly jealous of Shep for being able to so easily grab your attention. She also adds that she is sorry that she called you an abomination, but this new magic still scares her.

[Mage Girl relationship: Friendly, Lovers, Teacher/Student]

[X] Talk to Shep; show her some of the tricks we learned as the Listener of the Brotherhood. Spend some time with her when you're not with Ericka, bond with her try to get her to open up to you. Build a relationship with her. Bottom line show we care.

As it turns out, Shep is more nimble than you are and the locks in Ferelden were constructed differently than those in Skyrim. Furthermore, the poisons here were made with different herbs, not found in Skyrim. The herbs that you know aren't found here either. The only tricks you share are knife throwing tricks, though Shep picked it up in less than five minutes. She is very talented with the physical aspects of her body.

She is able to stretch and contort like a… well, no one in the Dark Brotherhood is as good as her in this. Still, she is new to killing and that seems to be building some kind of feeling in her. It wasn't quite negative, but not quite positive either. As the Listener, you knew that it wasn't the first kill that caused people trauma, but the steady build up of death.

What began as a time to share stories turned into Shep talking about all the people she killed or want to kill. You find out that every night, when she couldn't sleep, she whispers the names of all the people she wants to kill. Loghain, Howe, Duncan…

She ends up sniffling on your shoulder. You pat her awkwardly, as you were never the most emotionally sensitive kind of person, but this just caused her to tackle you. You hugged her awkwardly, but then she just collapsed into a heap and cried some more. Then she joined you and Erika in bed.

Next morning, Shep hopped out of bed delightfully. She admitted to you that she was a mess, though sometimes she feels very unhappy when she sees you spending time teaching Erika instead of her.

[Firehead Girl relationship: Friendly, Lovers, Comrades in Arms]

[X] Clairvoyance on Finding Howe for Shep

The next day, you announced that your group is leaving Honnleath (name tentative). Everyone seemed to be relieved by this, seeing as the darkspawn taint wasn't exactly leaving the land anytime soon.

You still have half a keg of Magical Dark Ale, which is loaded onto Bodahn's wagon. There were some magical items of use in the laboratory too, but nothing of immediate need. Bodahn's wagon seems to be fuller though, probably because he looted the homes of the dead too.

You announced to everyone that you were going to help Shepard get back at Howe and reclaim her home. Using Clairvoyance, you note that Howe is currently in the North-East, East direction.

Bodahn adds nervously, "Oh, that's too much excitement for me and my boy, but we'll wait for you around. It's the least I can do, and following you around seems pretty safe, but ah… yeah, it's profitable too…"

You nodded for him to go on.

"It's just, you're going after the third most powerful man in Ferelden," Bodahn scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Now, I know some dwarves love adventure and all, but my boy and I, we just want to be left alone, you know?"

"Enchantment!"

"That's right, my boy," Bodahn nodded sadly, "that's right."

You accepted this. In the end, Bodahn wanted to follow you to the city ("Someone as powerful as him would definitely be in a city") Howe is in, but he would be following you when you confront Howe.

With this settled, your group traveled. It took about half a day to arrive in Lothering. With the ox moving as fast as a galloping horse and with the rest of you sprinting most of the way, it was a quick journey.

The town was filled with refugees to the brim. From what you could eavesdrop, you found out that they were all escaping the darkspawn horde. Apparently in the five weeks that you spent going to and staying in Honnleath, another horde built up, several magnitudes greater than the last. From what you hear, one of the vanguards of the horde would be at Lothering within two days.

There was a dying Qunari in one of the cages. It was a nasty looking cage, because the nicer cages are being used as hovels by some of the refugees.

There was a crazy man in the middle of a group of people ranting about the end of days or something. He started pointing at your girls the moment you drew closer, something about them being tainted and evil.

A group of three templars walked up to your group and the leader said, "Hey, I can sense you people from here. You're apostates, aren't you?"

"And we're also Grey Wardens," Erika replied angrily. After spending so much time with you and Shep, she's become coarser than the shy little mage girl she used to be.

"O-oh," the templar stuttered. "My mistake! I'm a loyal supporter of King Cailan, the true king, too."

They quickly left you with a smile and a salute, "Carry on, loyal Wardens."

"The political climate must have changed a lot in the last five weeks," Shep noted. "The baron isn't around either… I guess he's cozying up in Denerim."

[ ] Continue onto Howe immediately  
[ ] Take over Lothering somehow  
[ ] Ask around Lothering for news  
[ ] Stay, fight and save the refugees  
[ ] Write-in

[X] One Week in Lothering

"One week?!"

Shep stomped off, not looking happy.

"I'll… ah, I'll go calm her down," Erika stuttered awkwardly. "She's… well, she's just eager. Yeah, that's it." She quickly escaped after Shepard.

Bodahn shrugged at you, "None of my business telling what a strapping young lad like you what to do, ser. But you know, bedding two women, and then holding back your promises… Women are more dangerous than darkspawn, easily. Now I'm not saying you have to be careful or anything, just… be careful. I'm going to go hit the taverns… maybe there's still a seat not taken, but I doubt it."

"Enchantment!"

[X] Take Control of the City, under the authority of the Grey Wardens. Use Charm magics on anyone that starts to be disagreeable.

Later that day, you gathered up the leaders of the city: the Revered Mother of the Lothering Chantry, Elder Miriam, Ser Cody Bryant the Templar Commander, and Danal of Dane's Refuge tavern.

"What is this, on whose authority do you call me from my work?" The Revered Mother seemed rather upset.

"By the authority of the Grey Wardens," you growled back at her with a ferocity that caused her to flinch. That was the cover story you decided upon with the girls. They didn't seem too happy to use it, but they knew there was no other way to rally the people. They were equally agitated behind you at the Revered Mother's tone. "In a day you will be overrun with Darkspawn, you must flee."

The four exchanged uneasy glances.

"To where?" Danal asked.

"North? East? West? As long as you leave this place," you said. "We will hold the vanguard off, but we can't hold them off forever."

"Ferelden is at war," Miriam muttered softly, "I suppose I can go east to the capital, but now is not the time to confer. I have people to help…" She stood up and left. As she walked away, she turned around and said, "You cannot move people who don't want to move. These refugees… their lives are too hard for them to even hope anymore…"

"Grey Wardens… are you really?" The Revered Mother muttered, "I don't see your colors… but I suppose now is not the time to be picky. Do what you will, but I cannot help you. My place is with this chantry and this is where the Maker will have me, in life or death." With that, she went back into her office.

That left only the templar, Ser Bryant. He looked grim, "Look, Wardens, I'd like to help, but what you're asking is impossible. I have less than a handful of templars at my command… only nine now that the youngest pair went to try to take on some bandits. They didn't return. Look, we can't even keep order here anymore. There is almost two thousand refugees here… that's several times the size that this small village could normally hold."

"What are you saying?"

"I can't help you," he sighed. "I want to, but my resources are limited. And you are only three, which helps none at all, even with your legends. It's not like you could swoop down on the darkspawn with three gryphons, could you?" He laughed without humor, drily.

"Swooping is bad," Shep chirped behind you.

You ignored her.

Ser Bryant turned away, "Look, there's supplies being stockpiled, but that'll last maybe a month if we spread it out. Nothing is coming from the other freeholds. Everyone, all the Banns, Arls, Teyrns… they are all choosing sides. It's stupid, fighting in a burning house… But without any supplies our people will starve to death. And without choosing a side, they won't be allowed into the cities… only to die as the darkspawn come down upon them later. It's a sad fate."

"But they could avoid it, at least for now," Shep added.

Ser Bryant looked down at her painfully, "False hope is something I don't want to promise."

"But we can save them," you subtly waved a Charm spell on him. "The darkspawn will be defeated, believe it."

"I…" He faltered slightly, but then his eyes focused. "Wha… what is this. My mind was… are you… this is blood magic! Y-you're a Warden and you use—argh!"

You overpowered his mind with an even greater Calm spell, with more potency as you poured your energy into it. It seemed to work for a moment, but Templars were trained to resist mind altering effects. For a templar to achieve such a position as Commander, they must have great mental fortitude. So a moment later, due to his excessive resistance to your Calm spell, blood leaked out of his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. His eyes rolled back until you could barely see his pupils and he fell to his knees.

With a tap of his neck, you realized that he wasn't breathing.

"Oh Maker, oh Maker…" Erika's knuckles were white. She was trembling slightly. She knew it wasn't blood magic, but she never expected this.

Shep was staring intently into the templar's face, without a word.

You are an Archmage, you are better than this. You would try powerful healing spells, but what then? You can't erase his memories of your mental manipulation. There's no going back now. Healing him would just make him do that again…

"Make him come back," Erika muttered and panicked, "Heal him, do something! Oh, this is bad, this is really bad. I, I…"

You were about to Calm her too before she grabbed your hands. "Don't do it on me, do something about this!" She hissed, "If anyone finds out…"

In the end, you used the [Dead Thrall] spell on him, with an extra force of Calm to keep him seemingly normal. People can't tell the difference until you released the spell anyway, the magic of the Thrall spell would preserve him well enough. Through your Calm spell, you could control him enough to give simple answers and orders to people.

[New Companion: Ser Cody Bryant (Thrall)]

[X] Mobilize the populous that are fight capable, and ready the defenses using similar tactics as earlier. Walls of Earth, Rivers of Lava, conjured forces, etc.

With the Templar Commander under your thrall, you were able to gather the nine templars and about 50 militia men able to defend themselves. Everyone else seemed to be minding their own business.

By spending the next few hours in the center of the village, you made a large ritual circle that could bind 24 daedra to your will within it with some help of a fearful Erika.

You sent Shep to organize the men while keeping Ser Bryant close for credibility.

But the man's presence didn't help when 12 Flame Atronach and 12 Ice Atronach appeared and people began muttering about abominations and demons. You encompassed the town in a thick layer of lava moat, but you were forced, by the village people, to leave five exits.

In addition to openly accusing you of consorting with demons and being an abomination, the people also whined your ears to near deaf with complaints about how the lava was ruining their crop fields.

It became much worse when a child, whose parents were missing, fell into the lava and melted alive. There were a lot of glares openly at you after that.

The village of Lothering was surrounded by a 4 meter tall, 0.5 meter thick wall by the end of the day. There were also several messy pools of lava around, each 5 meters wide and 5 meters deep.

[X] Fight and defend the Citysmall village from the immediate threat.

You were too tired of all the work you did in the first day to do anything else. On the dawn of the second day, you noticed under [Detect Life] that the vanguard was less than 200 meters away.

You levitated out to meet the coming vanguard.

It was only a group of 200, which was strange. There were at least fifty of them who were magic using Emissaries, and another ten who were Ogres. It took you two hours to kill them, due to the Emissaries combining their spell power to counter most of your magic and the Ogres taking on your Atronach. Since it was too far from the village, the rest of your Atronach could not be called to help.

It was a hard battle that you ended with by using several Shouts.

[Dragon Shout +3]  
[Conjuration +5]  
[Destruction +1]  
[Archery +1]

When you returned, you found the lava filled with darkspawn corpses. In fact, it looked like they were using short genlocks as stepping stones to get over the lava moat and the makeshift mud and stone wall you raised. The Atronaches you left in the village had quickly taken care of the darkspawn but not before at least one quarter of the village was burning and at least three hundred people were dead.

From your [Detect Life] vision, you noted that more waves of darkspawn will be coming each day. This did not bode well for the temporary residents of Lothering.

[X] Once the Darkspawn are dealt with, start the evacuation of the Citysmall village, and have them go north, away from the blight.

Despite you, Ser Bryant, or your girls' urging, many people did not want to leave. They had no place to go, and the journey up north was no less dangerous. With the Civil War going on, no one wanted get caught in the middle.

That reminds you that you knew nothing about what the current happenings of the Civil War, this didn't make you feel very comfortable.

After searching around the village in your free time, you noted that people weren't leaving the village in groups. Instead, they were leaving one or two families at a time. Many of them were getting attacked by bandits, giant spiders, dire bears, and the sort on the road, just some paces up north. You had no time to seek them out and kill them all, but you did kill a few spiders.

[Greater-class souls +8, lesser-class souls +16]

There have been about 250 who have already left the village, but that was only about 10% of the total village. Well, now it was more, because the final head count of those killed when the group of darkspawn snuck passed you and attacked the village turned out to be around 500. There are around 1700 people remaining in the village.

While trying to urge people to leave, a group of mercenaries attacked you in the tavern (which had no mead). They were killed quickly by a Chantry Sister with an Orlesian-accent. She seems to want to come follow you around. She seems kind of crazy, constantly saying that her fake god brought her to you. She is a little pretty, you admitted, but if you were to compare redheads, Shep is better. Shep doesn't have that weird accent.

On the other hand, Orlesian Girl seems to have a bigger chest.

[ ] Allow her to come.  
[ ] Tell her to go mind her own business.

You were able to use your Illusion spells to urge some people to leave, but this had to be hidden. You don't know what people would think if you had used it in the open, but it wouldn't be pretty. You were able to convince about 250 people to leave this way.

[X] Cast heals on the Qunari to keep it alive if it looks to be on its death bed. Then talk to it.

Due to your prioritizing the Qunari after the village, it was dead by the time you reached it.

[X] Spend time with Shep and get her help with marshaling the city and getting them organized. Explain to her that we are still going after Howe, but we need to save these villagers first.

You were unable to spend much time with Shep or to show off your marshalling skills (You are a Thane, after all) due to your lack of time and the constant waves of darkspawn.

You tried to explain to her that you wanted to save some villagers first before going after Howe since he would always be there. You don't think you got through to her, but she begrudgingly nodded and accepted your reasoning.

Later, you caught her complaining to Erika about how you were too fickle.

Throughout the week, Shep had become a leader in the small community because the villagers always compared her in contrast with you. She was a strong leader, and she pretty much took the place of Ser Bryant. The others were old so they allowed her to take the lead. ("Oh, look how wholesome she is, not like that mage." "See how she is a champion of the people, not like how that guy… what's he doing out of the village now?" "She's pretty. I don't know what he looks like, but if he wears that helmet around all the time, then he must be very ugly", etc). Shep had been able to convince another 50 to leave through her leadership skills. Even with her training, she had little time and she was still just a young girl.

[Firehead Girl relationship: Somewhat Friendly, Slightly Annoyed, Lovers, Comrades in Arms]

[X] Spend time with Erika, talking magical theory, as we go about our various tasks. Use Clairvoyance to help her find her Aunt/Cousins if they are still in Lothering.

With so little time and your prioritizing Erika last, you had no time to talk to her about magical theory. On the last day of the week, you used Clairvoyance to look for her remaining family, but it turns out they had left sometime earlier that week.

She seems upset about it, but she kept quiet about it. She said she knew you had more important things to do. She had spent the week with little to do on her hands so she had spent the time helping Miriam with the injured or sick villagers.

She had learned something about herbs and alchemy.

[Firehead Girl relationship: Somewhat Friendly, Upset, Lovers, Comrades in Arms]

At the end of the week, both girls confronted you about leaving. Shep crossed her arms and pouted, "You promised! One week, here! Helping! Helped the best I could too!" She didn't seem to be good at forming coherent sentences when upset and frazzled. She didn't seem to have gotten much sleep with so much work in the village.

"Ahem," Erika cleared her throat, "What she means is we want to leave. We helped more than half of the village evacuate already. There are maybe one thousand who will stay, once all these refugees leave because there would be a lot of vacancy left, but there's a group of almost 500 at the north gate, who want to travel with us. Miriam is there trying to keep them calm."

"I…"

"We don't have much time, and we can't stay here forever," She added. "You know this."

"Yeah…" you nodded, convinced. Most of those who stayed were the people who didn't like you anyway. Putting up with their attitude was bad enough, but to stay here any longer just because you wanted to save them? You were very close to just rebelling against the voices in your head. You simply didn't care about saving people's lives if it ended up like this. And you didn't care about reputation either. People forget things quickly enough, and with some propaganda, you could make a new reputation for yourself easily; it's part of being a Thane, after all.

But the problem is now that you are escorting refugees, they will slow you down. The sick, injured, elderly, and young will make even your moderate pace slow down to a turtle's pace.

At the north gate, you found Bodahn and Sandal waiting and ready to leave. Both were happy to see you, strangely enough. "It's about time. We were waiting… this is a huge crowd! I don't think I could get used to this kind of travel… but it's probably safer, right? Safety in numbers and all that?"

"Enchantment," Sandal nodded in agreement.

"Hey, you even got the Templar to follow you around," he noted. "Why is he here alone?"

"Must be wanting to help the refugees," you shrugged.

Ser Bryant moaned softly, "Kill meee…" But you silenced him with a Calm spell that made him sound like, "Hellooo…"

Bodahn shrugged in response.

There were almost 500 refugees, most of whom were old and sick, waiting at the northern exit of the village. They were looking to you for guidance.

[ ] Abandon them and kill Howe already. You aren't here for this.  
[ ] Take them to safety in the north. A nice, large city would be nice.  
[ ] Stay in Lothering and keep them all safe like a real hero.  
[ ] Write-in.

[X] Allow her to come.

The Really Religious Chantry Girl has joined your party. She introduced herself as Leliana. She seemed loopy, and didn't seem to get along very well with the other girls, but Sandal seems to like her.

[X] Heal them with an AoE healing spell.

Your largest healing spell that isn't an instant, one-hit heal, was the guardian circle, which only heals those within 5 meters of you.

At first, the refugees were cautious about this healing circle. Then, when one of them walked into it and felt himself regain some stamina, the others clamored to go in the circle too. But a circle with a radius of 5 meters would not be able to fit 500 people, so people were soon pushing and stomping each other aside to get into the healing light.

You found this a good time to leave.

[X] Abandon them and kill Howe already. You aren't here for this.

Leliana squawked indignantly when you tossed her into the wagon. But she had little time to complain as your group began to move at speeds she didn't think was possible.

[X] Dispel dead Thrall, when no one is looking.

No one noticed that Ser Bryant disappeared, but when your party did, they thought he probably went back to escort the refugees.

Shep complained that you were going too fast, so she went and sat on the wagon for a part of the way. However, little else happened during this journey, other than the occasional travelers or bandits you passed quickly on this road.

It took a little over 3 days, but you reached Denerim. Traveling so quickly, you have little time to socialize.

It was the largest city you have seen in Ferelden, though you haven't seen many. Clairvoyance seems to point into the city. You walked around the walls of Denerim and found that Howe was somewhere within the walls.

You noted that the gates were closed to most people. The area surrounding it was packed with refugees who have traveled north but weren't allowed into the city. There were many small tents and makeshift hovels.

"Halt," one of the guards called to you as your group approached, "What's a motley crew like yours doing here? A Chantry sister, two dwarves, and what are you people supposed to be?"

[ ] We're Grey Wardens, let us in.  
[ ] We're Merchants.  
[ ] We're refugees.  
[ ] We're mercenaries hired by Arl Howe.  
[ ] Write-in.

[X] Pose as mercenaries escorting the dwarven merchants. Leliana is a Chantry sister our dwarven employers graciously allowed to accompany us lest she be attacked by bandits.

"We're hired swords," you growled. The butterfly sword in your pack seems more intimidating when it's not drawn. "And the sister's with us because we saved her on the road."

"I see," the guard sighed, "Alright, move on through. I'll have to check your goods first, but then you can go."

One of the other guards came over the help shift through Bodahn's goods. Bodahn didn't feel too comfortable about it, but he seemed used to this. The other guard grumbled, "Mercs, they'll let anyone become one these days."

"They saved a Chantry sister, who…" The guard turned to Leliana with a suspicious glance, "What are you doing out in the wilderness, sister?"

"Oh, I was on a mission from the Revered Mother of Lothering," Leliana replied smoothly. She seemed to have gotten the gist of it without even blinking an eye. How suspicious. She added, "It's strictly Chantry business, for the sake of our hard working templars."

"I see, I think I understand. If you're with her, I suppose everything's in order then," the first guard nodded.

As you left, you heard the other guard ask, "Eh? Wot's that?"

"Look mate, the sister's probably one of them sisters who help catch maleficars," the first guard whispered, "They move around expensive Lyrium, geddit? Bandits and the like will go after that kind of stuff."

"Ooh," the second guard nodded in understanding, "Killin' bandits probably then. I like killing bandits. Let'em try running, I'll put an arrow through their knees."

Denerim is the capital city of Ferelden, but it doesn't seem like much. It's still larger than the cities in Skyrim, probably four times the size of Solitude.

There were many merchants in the market district, but they were mostly selling miscellaneous things of little use. There were a lot of residences but you quickly scouted out the area while Bodahn and Sandal set up shop. The dwarves were selling cloths and armors, most of which you think came from Ostagar or Honnleath.

There were several landmarks, or buildings, of note from glance.

The Pearl seemed like a fascinating place, though you wondered why Shep and Erika dragged you away from it by your ears before you could enter. It actually hurt!

There was an Elven Alienage. From your memories of the Thalmor, you think the elves deserve it.

There was a towering building in the distance called Fort Drakon. It was where your Clairvoyance pointed to when you thought about Shep's quest for vengeance. The fort has two garrison floors before reaching several offices and storage areas. There is then a short climb to the top roof. There is also an extensive dungeon. Supposedly there are around 500 soldiers garrisoned here at any time, but that could be just an exaggeration. Clairvoyance seems to point towards the dungeons, but Howe seems to not be staying still.

There was a tavern that you wanted to check out called the Gnawed Noble.

There's also an armor smith of some fame (within the city) called Wade's Emporium. It might have some things of use, or perhaps you could spend some time there to learn a thing or two.

Finally, there was a bookstore of notable size called the Wonders of Thedas. It is supposed to be the most complete bookstore in Ferelden. You think about killing everyone inside and looting the whole place.

[X] DakkaQuest Mark 2

You directed everyone into one of the more cramped alleyways and had everyone change into clothes that would befit a merchant. Bodahn didn't have anything for women, so the three girls were dressed like men. The clothes he has are that of regular merchants only, nothing of wealthy merchants.

Shep complains that being out of armor makes her feel naked and how it seems strange that wealthy merchants would travel around without guards.

Due to the current civil war, housing in Denerim is hard to find, especially for the upper class. Many merchants and nobles have turned to Denerim, thinking that Teyrn Loghain would be able to protect everyone from the darkspawn and win the war. The city is suffering from overcrowding at the moment.

By the end of the afternoon, you found two wooden hovels in the poorer parts of the city and one house with stone foundations in the middle class part of town open or at least empty. Going with your act, your group of six settled in the nicer home. It is two stories tall and has a small storage basement and a tiny attic. It also has two normal bedrooms (one on the first floor and one on the second) and one smaller one for servants on the first floor. The stone walls make it seem defensible. From the second floor window, you see a way to climb out and escape along the roofs. Fort Drakon is at the south-western end of the city, while your home is somewhere in the middle of the southern end.

Your act as a group of merchants works well… maybe too well. Around 10 minutes after you settled down in the home, a group of thugs representing the local "tenant's association" came knocking. There were three of them, one leader and two muscles. They seemed to think of you as a weak little merchant and treated you as such.

So you disintegrated them before they could even blink.

Just moments later, Leliana walks in and comments on how exciting all this sneaking around and espionage was to her. She seems to think that she should regret it though.

There are a lot of nobles and merchants in the city, too many for you to get to know. You only learn that Teyrn Loghain is out of the city at the moment, rallying the southern levies. The main person in charge of Denerim at the moment is Arl Howe. Most merchants don't really want to get to know you because you have no wares or money to show for yourself.

Erika grumbled at their disrespect, but you replied that you didn't want to buy things you don't need with money you don't have to impress people you don't like.

Shep was upset that she wasn't allow out, so while you were away trying to get to know the merchants and nobles of the city, she snuck out. You found out later that she had been recklessly pickpocketing every noble she ran across, though she was smart enough to wear a cowl or a helm to cover her face. She also acquired some lady's clothes. They seem to be much higher quality than the clothes you're wearing.

You left Erika in the Wonders of Thedas. The shopkeep turned out to be a guy who had his emotions and magic taken away. He seemed not mind people reading in his shop. Here, you overhear that there were many happenings going on around Ferelden, but you don't really think of it as important at the moment.

While preparing at your base of operations, you find that you are unable to enchant with the effects of [Detect Life] or [Clairvoyance], though with both spells active, it was very easy to see where your target is.

In your Shrouded Armor you go around to various tanners and leatherworkers and commission two sets of armor for Shep, one that is gaudy and one that is practical. Many of them are frightened by your appearance and are intimidated into doing the work. However, the making of this armor, even with the leatherworkers fearing for their lives and adjusting already made pieces, will take a few days. At least both of you had fun getting for Shep's measurements.

You tell Shep and Erika to keep an eye on Howe. Shep was unable to do this because her face gave her away and Erika was not trained in the arts of espionage. Leliana volunteered for this job, strangely enough. You wonder what kind of life she had before she was a chantry sister. That might explain some of the people watching her when you entered the city.

Shep continued to steal while not following you around. You later hear on the streets that apparently someone broke into a noble named Bann Franderel's manor and slaughtered everybody within, twice. Shep just whistled and played with a tiny vial of glowing white liquids that seemed to be very concentrated Lyrium. From what you can sense, it seems to be even purer than raw Lyrium.

You spent the rest of those few days with Erika in the Wonders of Thedas, though she spent most of the time reading rather than talking to you.

On the fourth day you arrived in Denerim, both the gaudy armor and the efficient armor were done. The gaudy one was white with a red sash and many pouches and hidden blades. It was very eye catching for an assassin's attire.

The practical set was simple looking with no visible pouches or strings. It had a hooded cowl and was a dark color of ash. There were some Lyrium runes on the inside layer, which was supposed to preserve the quality of the leather and lighten it. This seemed to work because the entire set felt as light as Shep's underwear. You spent a few minutes enchanting it with 8 grand-class souls. When you gave it to Shep, she called it the [Renegade's Veil]. She was very happy with it.

[Enchanting +5]  
[Firehead Girl relationship: Very Friendly, Conflicted, Lovers, Comrades in Arms]

When Shep sneaks around with it on, she seems to almost disappear into the background like a chameleon and it took your strength of will to remember that she was there. Then she pinched your buttocks, causing you to jump. She shrugged off the hood and laughed heartily at you before skipping away. When she slipped into the streets, it was as if she disappeared again, even when there was almost no one else there. The magic of enhanced sneaking practically redirected your attention to any other bystander except her. The armor seems to be working well.

Both you and Shep replace your Honnleath [Mark] with the location at the basement of the hideout. Erika acknowledged this and noted to you that Bodahn and Sandal seem to have sold out all of their wares and were now selling Sandal's enchantment ability out to the Chantry templars for a contract. They were making a gold sovereign every dozen enchantments.

Leliana wanted to accompany you, but you asked her to stay with Erika or Bodahn at base. She remarked how you should trust her more, to which you replied that she should trust you too. She seems conflicted about this but laid out Howe's daily schedule for you.

[Very Religious Girl relationship: Awkward, Follower]

Arl Howe has taken up residence in the Arl of Denerim's Estate. Howe spends his mornings at home, surrounded by guards. Every four days, he makes rounds at Fort Drakon, but he doesn't seem to go out sometimes because the peasants of the city seem to be living poorly and many are clamoring to him in protest. In at noon, Howe visits the barracks and conducts dealings at the docks or in the Alienage. Most of his nights, Howe spends time in his manor and often in his basement. There are some rumors that Queen Anora is missing because of him.

It seems like every night the Arl is working diligently in his dungeons. The estate is surrounded by guards and is worked by guards on every floor. Around fifty of them are Arl Howe's personal guards, while there are some one hundred more mercenaries. Leliana also remarks with some disgust that Arl Howe is employing a group of apostates, at least twenty strong. There are magical and mundane traps all around and within the estate, many lethal.

Leliana provided the floor plans: the estate itself is only three stories tall, though rather large it can be easily covered. However, it has an extensive underground dungeon with many rooms and many turns. The exact plans for the dungeon were never found because Arl Howe actually expanded it greatly in the last two months. Leliana suspects that there are at least fifty political prisoners of note down there, though there are probably many times that number down there already dead.

In this case, levitating in on the second floor and then sneaking down seems a viable option. In the dead of night, both of you snuck up to the ledge of a window and tested it. All the windows in the house were locked shut and reinforced with iron bars on the inside. There was a small Lyrium rune hidden at each one of the corners of the windows.

Below you noted that there were several mabari hounds running towards your direction. You remembered that muffle and sneak keeps you silent and unseen, but these enchantments don't take away your smell.


End file.
